Former Fauci aide charged for evading records requests

Former Fauci aide charged for evading records requests

The Justice Department on Tuesday indicted David Morens, a former top official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for an alleged scheme to keep his dealings with an outside group out of public view. 

A grand jury indicted Morens for allegedly using a private Gmail account to hide official communications about federally funded projects studying coronaviruses in bats.

The indictment alleges that Morens used that account to evade Freedom of Information Act requests regarding the origins of the coronavirus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Morens was once a close advisor to Anthony Fauci, the former NIAID director who became the face of the pandemic response. Fauci was not named in the indictment. “As alleged in the indictment, Dr. Morens and his co-conspirators deliberately concealed information and falsified records in an effort to suppress alternative theories regarding the origins of COVID-19,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.  The indictment comes after lengthy congressional investigations into the Biden administration’s handling of the pandemic, with a focus on the origins of the virus.

In 2024, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released evidence of Morens using his personal email to discuss NIH grants with the infectious disease group EcoHealth Alliance.If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison for each count of concealment of records, up to five years for conspiracy against the U.S. and up to 20 years for each count of destruction of records.  Morens’s communications suggested a quid........

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