DOJ charges Fauci’s former senior adviser David Morens in explosive records-concealment case tied to COVID-19 origins
The Department of Justice accused a former senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday of allegedly concealing records during investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
David Morens, 78, has been charged with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting.
The indictment, unsealed Monday in Maryland federal court, also lists two unnamed co-conspirators who “concealed, removed, destroyed and caused the concealment, and removal of federal records to evade FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] and FRA [Federal Records Act].”
Morens, who served as a senior advisor to Fauci from 2006 to 2022, conducted official government business from a private email account and asked the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) FOIA liaison for tips on how to evade records requests, according to communications first exposed by The Post in May 2024.
“[T]here is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail [sic], or hand it to him at work or at his house,” Morens wrote in one April 21, 2021, email. “He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”
The Department of Justice indicted COVID adviser David Morens on Tuesday for allegedly concealing records amid probes into the origins of the pandemic.NIAID
Dr. Anthony Fauci is seen at the 33rd Annual White House Correspondents’ Garden Brunch in Washington, DC, on Saturday, April 25, 2026.Nathan Posner/Shutterstock
Two months prior, Morens said in a Feb. 24 email: “[I] learned from our foia [sic] lady here how to make emails disappear after I am foia’d [sic] but before the search starts.”
“Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail [sic],” he noted.
Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks at a press conference on Jan. 2020.Getty Images
On Sept. 9, 2021, Morens wrote that he would “always communicate on gmail [sic] because my NIH email is FOIA’d constantly” and “delete anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, right, and US Attorney Jeanine Pirro speak during a news conference at the Department of Justice on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Washington, DC.AP
Morens oversaw a now-infamous grant from NIH to the Manhattan-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance beginning in 2014 that ended up funneling US taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research.
“These allegations represent a profound abuse of trust at a time when the American people needed it most — during the height of a global pandemic,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
Dr. David Morens speaks at a hearing on Capitol Hill in 2024.Getty Images
“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. Government officials have a solemn duty to provide honest, well-grounded facts and advice in service of the public interest — not to advance their own personal or ideological agendas.”
Explore more:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
