A former senior adviser to Anthony Fauci, David M. Morens, has been indicted by the Justice Department in a federal case alleging he participated in a scheme to conceal records tied to early pandemic research.
Morens, who served as a senior adviser in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 2006 through 2022, faces charges including conspiracy against the United States, destruction or alteration of government records, concealment of records, and aiding and abetting.
According to federal prosecutors, Morens worked with others to defraud the government after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminated a bat coronavirus grant that involved collaboration with the EcoHealth Alliance and included a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Prosecutors allege that Morens and his co-conspirators used personal Gmail accounts instead of official systems to hide communications from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, including non-public NIH information, efforts to influence funding decisions, edits to letters for NIH leadership, and back-channel communications with a senior NIAID official.
The indictment carries potential penalties of up to five years for conspiracy, up to 20 years per falsification charge, and up to three years per concealment charge. Morens is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
The case follows evidence uncovered by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer that aligns with findings from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic regarding Morens’ handling of communications related to pandemic origins.
In a prior hearing, Committee Chairman Brad Wenstrup noted that newly discovered emails showed Morens used private email accounts to avoid public records requests and shared confidential information with EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak.