Dr. David Morens, a former adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci, pleaded guilty in federal court to a conspiracy charge related to his evasion of the Freedom of Information Act requests and the Federal Records Act surrounding COVID-19 communications.
According to the guilty plea, Morens and others “conspired during the COVID-19 pandemic to defraud the United States after NIH terminated Co-Conspirator 1’s grant. NIH terminated the grant, Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence, based on allegations that COVID-19 emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Wuhan, China,” the DOJ said.
Those involved in the scheme used Morens’ personal Gmail account to exchange private NIH information and correspond with each other. Morens and Co-Conspirator 1 also conspired to pay illegal gratuities, the DOJ noted. “Co-Conspirator 1 gifted Morens wine for his ‘behind-the-scenes shenanigans,’ and arranged for its delivery to Morens’ Maryland residence,” the agency explained in its press release on the guilty plea. “Morens then allegedly identified an official act that he could perform to ‘deserve’ the gift, which was to author a scientific commentary in a prominent medical journal advocating that COVID-19 had natural origins. Co-Conspirator 1 suggested he would provide Morens with additional things of value,” such as meals at high-end restaurants.
Morens now faces up to five years in prison.
Fauci’s former adviser was indicted by the DOJ in April. He was accused of criminal activity by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Republican Staff in 2024. In a memorandum, staff presented “overwhelming evidence from Dr. Morens’s own email that he engaged in serious misconduct and potentially illegal actions while serving as a Senior Advisor to Dr. Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic,” a press release on the matter read at the time.
