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Former Fauci Adviser Pleads Guilty to Hiding COVID Research Records From the Public
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Former Fauci Adviser Pleads Guilty to Hiding COVID Research Records From the Public
A former senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci has pleaded guilty to conspiring to hide federal records involving COVID-19 research grants and efforts to counter claims that the pandemic began with a laboratory leak.
Dr. David Morens, 78, entered the guilty plea Tuesday in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. Morens worked in the Office of the Director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 2006 through 2022, while Fauci led the agency.
According to federal prosecutors, Morens and others deliberately used his personal Gmail account instead of official government systems because they anticipated their communications would be requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
The communications involved a federal grant titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” The grant was awarded to a New York organization that provided some of the money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
The National Institutes of Health terminated the grant in April 2020 amid allegations that COVID-19 may have emerged from the Wuhan laboratory.
Morens admitted that he and others worked to help restore the grant and counter the lab leak theory. His personal email was used to exchange nonpublic NIH information, discuss efforts to influence future funding decisions, edit letters intended for NIH leadership and provide back channel information to a senior NIAID official.
Federal prosecutors said those communications involved Morens’ official duties and therefore should have been created and preserved on government systems.
The guilty plea also included an illegal gratuities component. Prosecutors said one co-conspirator sent Morens wine for what was described as his “behind-the-scenes shenanigans.”
Morens then identified an official action he could perform to “deserve” the gift, according to the Justice Department. That action involved writing a commentary for a prominent medical journal advocating that COVID-19 originated naturally.
The same co-conspirator also offered Morens meals at Michelin starred restaurants in Paris, New York and Washington.
Morens pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit offenses and defraud the United States. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and is scheduled to be sentenced November 12 by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis.
“By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so,” defense attorney Tim Belevetz said following the hearing.
Fauci has not been charged in Morens’ criminal case. Although court documents reference an unidentified senior NIAID official who received back channel information, prosecutors have not publicly accused Fauci of participating in the conspiracy.
The guilty plea establishes that federal records were intentionally concealed. It does not establish whether COVID-19 originated naturally or escaped from a laboratory. The origin of the pandemic remains disputed among American intelligence agencies.
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