A former top advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci is accused of using a private email to hide COVID-era communications from the public and investigators seeking records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
As reported on Wednesday’s AM Update, David Morens, who served as a top advisor within the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 2006 to 2022, has been charged by federal prosecutors with one count of conspiracy against the United States, two counts of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations, and two counts of concealment, removal, or mutilation of records.
The indictment, unsealed Monday by the district court in Maryland, also referenced two unnamed co-conspirators who are accused of concealing and destroying federal records to evade FOIA. The document suggests they are Dr. Peter Daszak, president of the New York-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, and Dr. Gerald Keusch, a former associate director at Boston University and a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant recipient.
The Alleged Cover-Up
In the early days of the pandemic, hundreds of FOIA requests poured into NIH with many seeking information about a 2014 grant overseen by Morens that was awarded to EcoHealth Alliance and then funneled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research.
The funding was cut off in April 2020 after the NIH initiated a review into claims the COVID virus may have come from a laboratory at the Wuhan lab.
According to the indictment, the 78 year old and his associates used personal email accounts instead of official government systems to keep certain discussions – including COVID research, funding decisions, and messaging about the virus’s origin – hidden from records requests.
The indictment alleged that on or about February 24, 2021, Morens emailed his co-conspirators, “I learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’ed but before the search starts, so I think we are all safe. Plus, I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.” And there are apparently many more examples of similar emails.
Additionally, prosecutors accused Morens of illegally accepted gifts from Dazak. In June 2020, Dazak allegedly delivered two bottles of wine to Moren’s home with the message, “This is the first of what I hope will be a continued series of expressions of gratitude for your advice, support and behind-the-scenes shenanigans in my battle against your boss’s boss, his boss, and the ultimate boss on the hill.”
Morens later sent an email from his personal account to Dazak thanking him for the wine and adding, “now I am actually going to have to do something to deserve it.”
Shortly thereafter, the indictment alleged Morens submitted a paper to a “prominent medical journal” backing the theory that COVID-19 came from nature, not from a Wuhan lab.
Previous Concerns
When Morens appeared before the House Oversight Committee in 2024, be was questioned by lawmakers about many of these emails. He had the following exchange with Congresswoman Jill Tokuda (D-HI):
Tokuda: Dr Morrens, did you ever conduct government business through your personal email account
Morens: Not intentionally.
Tokuda: Unintentionally or not, did you conduct government business through your personal email account?
Morens: Well, some of the emails I’ve seen that you all have provided look pretty incriminating. I don’t know what they are. I don’t remember them, but, yes, it looks like I made a mistake on more than one occasion. But it certainly wasn’t my intention to do that.
The FBI investigation into Morens was the a result of a criminal referral sent by he House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to the Department of Justice in 2024.
Next Steps
Morens appeared in court for the first time Monday. A judge ordered his release pending trial on the condition that he turn over his passport by Wednesday and avoid all contact with his co-conspirators. He is set to be arraigned sometime next week.
If convicted, Morens faces up to five years in prison for conspiracy against the U.S., 20 years for each count of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations, and three years for each count of concealment, removal, or mutilation of records.
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