Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
The CIA has investigated thousands of personnel and contractors for not receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new lawsuit.
In 2021, then-President Joe Biden imposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal employees and contractors. Shortly after, the CIA’s chief operating officer directed the CIA’s Counter Espionage Department to investigate all unvaccinated contractors and workers within the agency, plaintiffs said in the suit, which was filed on June 30 in federal court in Virginia.
“Any employee or contractor who refused the vaccine was treated by the Agency as a threat to the United States government and ordered to be investigated as the same,” the suit reads.
A cross-agency group established by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard learned in 2025 from a whistleblower of the order and asked for confirmation from the CIA. The CIA responded by confirming the investigation of thousands of employees and contractors, according to the legal complaint. The CIA declined to cite an authority for the investigation order.
James Erdman III, one of the unvaccinated employees, formally asked the CIA to remove all material from the investigations and information in employee files that stemmed from the probes, lawyers representing unvaccinated CIA employees said. The agency never responded, leading to the lawsuit.
Erdman, who worked with Gabbard’s group, recently testified to the Senate about the CIA spying on the group as it worked on a number of matters, including the CIA’s change in its assessment of the origins of COVID-19.
The suit seeks certification of a class of employees who did not take a vaccine and were investigated. Plaintiffs also want the court to declare the order from the chief operating officer illegal and force the CIA to remove any information yielded from the investigation from employee and contractor files.
The CIA did not respond to a request for comment.
None of the workers affected by the investigations has been fired.
“The fact that the investigation occurred in the first instance, and the fact that there has been no assurances that anything stemming from that investigation has been essentially wiped clean, it does, unfortunately, set conditions—precedent—for where if there is any reason or need to investigate any of these individuals at any future date, this could be used as a basis to do so,” Carol Thompson, one of the lawyers representing the officers, told The Epoch Times.
“So it kind of unfortunately puts them in—the employees and contractors—in a precarious situation where they otherwise never should have been.”
Feds for Freedom, a group cofounded by Erdman, is supporting the lawsuit.
“Federal employees serving at the highest levels of our national security apparatus should never face counterespionage investigations simply for exercising a personal medical choice,” said Olivia Degenkolb, vice president of the organization, in a statement.
“These officers were targeted solely for their vaccination status. That is unacceptable. We are seeking justice in federal court to protect their rights and ensure our government upholds the rule of law.”
Tyler Durden Mon, 07/06/2026 - 23:25Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that the decisive phase of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shifted from land and sea to the air, making the battle in the sky the determining factor of the war - at a moment Russia has begun to experience a fuel shortage crisis in many locales due to vital energy infrastructure having been struck again and again by inbound suicide drones.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Zelensky emphasized that the question of seizing territory now holds far less significance because Ukraine has entered the aerial sphere and has unleashed serious damage on Russian territory. The Kremlin has all the while maintained that its forces are advancing in the east, but Zelensky is suggesting this doesn't matter anymore as Ukraine has pivoted to asymmetric warfare.
"Today I believe victory in this war belongs to whoever is smarter. If you stop the enemy on the battlefield, if you stop the war on land, and if you deny him dominance at sea – as we did with our naval drones, driving the Russian fleet away – then the next battlefield becomes the sky," he said in the FT interview, published Monday.
Ukraine Defense MinistryZelensky described that "it matters far less whose territory is larger" and that "we have moved into the air domain. And in the air, we are already competitive." Russia is in the meantime close to achieving its goal of pacifying the four eastern annexed territories.
The remarks are clearly timed to appeal to Ukraine's 'successes' against Russia during the same week the major annual NATO summit kicks off in Turkey, with President Trump and other world leaders expected.
Zelensky, who will also be on the ground in Ankara, further told FT:
"If our partners do not abandon Ukraine financially, if our soldiers continue holding the front, if every kilometer of Russian advance continues to cost them tens of thousands – and sometimes hundreds of thousands – of personnel, then the decisive struggle will take place in the skies.
Because the skies will determine the outcome of this war."
President Trump has meanwhile newly claimed that that the end of the Ukraine war is closer than most people think. However, the two sides are not even close to getting representatives at the same table.
The president was questioned Monday on why Russia's Putin doesn't feel more pressure when the two talk, to which Trump replied: "I think he really feels pressure... he wants to put an end to this, and Ukraine wants to put an end to this. We are negotiating and we'll see if we can put an end to it."
Another record strike by Ukraine's long-range drone arsenal:
Record-distance strike: Ukraine hit Omsk oil refinery — the largest in Russia — located 2,700 km from Ukrainian territory. pic.twitter.com/HiicAABzos
— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 6, 2026"I think we are much closer than people think," Trump continued. "President Putin wants this to end. I’ll tell you that very firmly. And President Zelensky really wants this to end now." He added: "We will succeed" - while affirming that this will be high on the agenda at the NATO summit.
The White House has been signaling a possible pivot back to a head-on diplomatic push to find an end to the conflict in Ukraine, which is now it its fifth year. The Iran ceasefire in the meantime appears to be holding, for now.
Tyler Durden Mon, 07/06/2026 - 23:00Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times,
A Chinese national living in New York has been indicted for allegedly running a sex-trafficking ring out of several residential brothels located in Boston's Allston and Brighton neighborhoods.
The Department of Justice building in Washington on July 21, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch TimesLiu Zengzeng, 40, of the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, was arrested in New York on July 1, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced on July 2.
Liu, who also goes by the name of "Bella," was indicted on June 24 on one count of knowingly persuading an individual to travel in interstate commerce to engage in prostitution and three counts of use of facilities of interstate or foreign commerce in aid of racketeering enterprises.
Prosecutors said Liu's alleged activities spanned 11 months, beginning in August 2025, during which she allegedly recruited women via foreign national middlemen. The women came from several countries, including China, Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
The women would engage in commercial sex acts at apartments that Liu obtained through fraud via either altered or forged documents, according to prosecutors. The indictment identifies several addresses, including 365 Western Ave. in Brighton, 83 Gardner St. in Allston, and 50 Hichborn St. in Brighton.
In October 2025, an FBI task force carried out an operation targeting a website known for commercial sex listings, according to an affidavit, and identified a phone number that an agent acting in an undercover capacity called to negotiate a price of $600 for a sex act. The agent was then told to go to the Gardner Street address.
Before the FBI's undercover operation, the Boston Police Department had become aware of both the Western Avenue and Gardner Street addresses.
According to the affidavit, after receiving an anonymous tip in August 2025, Boston police investigated both locations. Nobody answered the door, but officers reported hearing people "running, whispering, and moving furniture" inside.
"At Gardner Street, a resident complained to [Boston Police] officers about men entering the building and going to the apartment on a regular basis, and that Asian women entered the apartment late at night," the affidavit states.
When the FBI undercover agent arrived at the Gardner Street location, an Asian woman who answered the door was "dressed in only a bra and underwear," according to the affidavit.
Inside the residence, the FBI task force found a living room with boxes of Kleenex and paper towels "stacked to the ceiling," along with two bedrooms, each containing a bed and a nightstand topped with bottles of lubricant and rolls of toilet paper.
The woman who answered the door told the FBI through an interpreter that she was from Japan and had traveled to Flushing, where friends told her to call a phone number to "make money," according to the affidavit.
The call connected her to Liu, the "boss," whom she knew as "Bella." Liu then directed her to Boston and arranged "dates" for her.
The Gardner Street apartment "continued to serve as a hub for commercial sex" after the FBI task force's operation, the affidavit said. It is estimated that there were 51 suspected sex buyers at the location from Oct. 31, 2025, to Nov. 2, 2025, based on surveillance footage, generating about $40,000 for the brothel.
The FBI task force, the Boston police, and the Massachusetts State Police executed a search warrant for the Gardner Street apartment on Nov. 9, 2025.
According to the affidavit, they encountered "two sex buyers and three naked or nearly naked Asian females," and seized nearly $15,000 in cash. Two of the females, speaking through an interpreter, said they came from Japan and that they kept only about half of the money from their "dates," while the rest would go to Bella.
The FBI task force carried out a similar operation in May. Inside an apartment at the Hichborn Street address, agents encountered three females - one from Japan and two from Vietnam. One had bruises on her "knees, legs, and feet" that, according to the affidavit, were caused by sex buyers.
"They were not allowed to leave the apartment," the affidavit states, referring to the three females.
As for how they had arrived at the apartment, one female said she had traveled to China, the Philippines, and New York to work at Liu's alleged sex operation, while another said she had traveled from Canada to New York before taking a "Chinese Uber" to Boston, according to the affidavit.
"Liu is a member of a sophisticated criminal organization with international ties, one that recruits and facilitates the travel of foreign nationals for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex," the affidavit states.
In total, U.S. authorities seized about $105,000 in cash during their investigation of Liu, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Prosecutors also alleged that Liu was receiving aid from New York's Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and used it to pay for groceries while operating the brothels.
Liu is scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston on July 8, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Liu's attorney didn't respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.
Tyler Durden Mon, 07/06/2026 - 22:35