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Washington — A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is facing charges over an alleged scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Justice Department said 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 initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge Monday and is set to be arraigned next week.
Morens served as a senior adviser to NIAID's Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022. Dr. Anthony Fauci led the institute for nearly 40 years, serving under seven presidents, and retired in 2022 during then-President Joe Biden's administration.
Prosecutors allege that Morens and two unnamed, unindicted co-conspirators worked together to defraud the U.S. by shielding federal records related to the pandemic from the public. The first co-conspirator, identified as "co-conspirator 1," served as the president and CEO of a New York-based nonprofit group that received a grant in 2014 titled "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence."
The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, received a subaward from the New York organization on the coronavirus grant, prosecutors said. The second co-conspirator is described in the indictment as a physician, scientist and professor who worked for an academic institute that received federal grants.
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 co-conspirator 1 is its president, Peter Daszak.
The charges stem from several Freedom of Information Act requests 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 that Morens started communicating with the company 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 been awarded. That grant was terminated in April 2020 after the National Institutes of Health said it was reviewing allegations 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 COVID-19's origins in an effort to evade federal public records laws.
Morens and his co-conspirators also allegedly used his Gmail account to share nonpublic information from the National Institutes of Health about COVID-19 and "back-channel" information to an unidentified senior NIAID official, which appears to be Fauci, according to the charging document.
The indictment claims that Morens authored a medical journal submission that sought to counter the claim that COVID-19 emerged from a lab 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 that 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 house and included a message stating, "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 bosses 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-starred restaurant in Paris, Washington, D.C., and New York.
Republicans in Congress 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 Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2024 and then answered questions publicly later that year.
Morens, too, appeared before the pandemic subcommittee in May 2024, where he was pressed about emails suggesting he was attempting to circumvent FOIA rules.
Fauci distanced himself from the investigation into Morens during his June 2024 testimony, telling lawmakers they worked in different buildings on the National Institutes of Health Campus. He said Morens was not an adviser to him 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.
Rep. James Comer, the Republican leader of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, lauded the Justice Department for pursuing charges against Morens.
"We caught Dr. Morens red-handed as he boasted in emails about how the 'FOIA lady' coached him on how to hide records and cover-up information," he said in a statement. "I applaud the Trump Justice Department for taking action to hold this public official accountable for hiding information from the American people."
While Fauci regularly appeared beside President Trump at public briefings in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between the two grew tense after Fauci differed with the president on public health guidance.
In the first days of Mr. Trump's second term, he removed Fauci's security detail. Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci before the end of his presidency in anticipation that he could be targeted by Mr. Trump.
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