Ex-adviser at Fauci’s NIAID indicted for allegedly attempting to hide records during COVID-19 pandemic

Washington- A former senior adviser to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases faces charges for an alleged scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Dr. David Morens, 78, was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month and charged with five counts, including conspiracy, destruction of records in federal investigations and concealment of records. He made his first appearance before a federal judge Monday and is expected to be arraigned next week.

Morens served as a senior advisor to the NIAID Director’s Office from 2006 to 2022. Dr. Anthony Fauci led the institute for nearly 40 years, under seven presidents, and retired in 2022 during the administration of then-President Joe Biden.

Prosecutors allege that Morens and two unnamed, unindicted co-conspirators worked together to defraud the United States by hiding federal records related to the pandemic from the public. The first co-conspirator, identified as “co-conspirator 1,” served as president and CEO of a New York-based nonprofit group that received a grant in 2014 titled “Understanding the Risk of Coronavirus Emergence from Bats.”

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, China, received a secondary grant from the New York organization for the coronavirus grant, prosecutors said. The second co-conspirator is described in the indictment as a doctor, scientist and professor who worked for an academic institute that received federal funding.

Emails released in 2024 by the Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic indicate that the New York-based organization is the EcoHealth Alliance and that co-conspirator 1 is its chairman, Peter Daszak.

The charges stem from several Freedom of Information Act requests that NIAID received between April 2020 and December 2022 from organizations, including Judicial Watch and the Heritage Foundation, that sought communications between Morens, the New York grant recipient, and its president.

Prosecutors said Morens began communicating with the company’s president, co-conspirator 1, in early 2020 about what was then the emerging coronavirus and received information about the bat coronavirus grant the nonprofit had received. That grant ended in April 2020 after the National Institutes of Health said it was looking into claims that the pandemic was the result of a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The indictment alleges that Morens and the two co-conspirators used his personal Gmail account to exchange emails about COVID-19, the bat coronavirus grant, and requests for documents about the grant and the origins of COVID-19 in an attempt to evade federal public records laws.

Morens and his co-conspirators also allegedly used his Gmail account to share non-public information from the National Institutes of Health about COVID-19 and “misappropriated” information with an unidentified senior NIAID official, who appears to be Fauci, according to the charging document.

The indictment claims that Morens authored a submission to a medical journal that sought to contradict the claim that COVID-19 came from a laboratory and instead focused on evidence that it came from nature, which the Justice Department said was intended to benefit the New York-based company and its president.

Prosecutors said Morens also used his position as a senior adviser at NIAID to “engage in official acts favorable” to the New York organization and its leader, and received gratuities.

In June 2020, Co-Conspirator 1 allegedly sent Morens two bottles of wine to his home and included a message stating, “This is the first of what I hope will be a continuing series of expressions of gratitude for your guidance, support, and behind-the-scenes shenanigans in my battle against your boss’s boss, his boss, and the ultimate boss on the Hill,” the indictment states.

The document also claims that Co-Conspirator 1 promised Morens additional gifts, such as a meal at a Michelin-star restaurant in Paris, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Congressional Republicans have launched an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab, as well as Fauci’s handling of the pandemic. Fauci testified for 14 hours before the GOP-led House Special Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2024, then publicly answered questions later that year.

Morens also appeared before the pandemic subcommittee in May 2024, where he was pressed about emails suggesting he was trying to circumvent FOIA rules.

Fauci distanced himself from the investigation into Morens during his June 2024 testimony, telling lawmakers that they worked in different buildings on the National Institutes of Health campus. He said Morens was not his adviser on “institute policy or other substantive issues.”

Fauci also acknowledged that many of Morens’ actions were wrong and violated agency policy, and denied using his personal email to conduct official business.

Mitch Benzine, former director of the House Select Subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic, said in a statement that the indictment demonstrates how congressional investigations can trigger law enforcement activity.

“I am proud that the work of the select subcommittee has led to this step toward accountability and transparency,” said Benzine, who is currently an attorney with the congressional investigations firm of Eversheds Sutherland.

Rep. James Comer, the Republican leader of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, praised the Justice Department for bringing charges against Morens.

“We caught Dr. Morens red-handed as he bragged in his emails about how the ‘FOIA lady’ coached him on how to hide records and withhold information,” he said in a statement. “I commend the Trump Justice Department for taking steps to hold this public official accountable for withholding information from the American people.”

While Fauci regularly appeared alongside President Trump at public press briefings during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between the two became strained after Fauci differed with the president on public health guidance.

In the early days of Mr. Trump’s second term, he deleted Fauci’s security details. Biden pardoned preventively Fauci before the end of his presidency, in anticipation that he could be a target of Mr. Trump.