A former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) employee has been indicted by the Department of Justice in connection with COVID-19 research grants. The former employee avoided Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
“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. “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.”
The former senior advisor to former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, David Morens, 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 DOJ explained. In his role as senior advisor, Morens counseled other senior-level staff on policies, and developed recommendations and solutions. He further guided staff on epidemiological studies related to infectious diseases.
According to the indictment, Morens and two co-conspirators schemed during the COVID-19 pandemic to “commit several offenses against the United States after NIH terminated Co-Conspirator 1’s grant.” Communications were moved to personal email accounts to exchange non-public information in an effort to evade transparency laws. Morens and a co-conspirator also conspired to pay illegal gratuities.
Morens 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.
“The memo includes previously unreleased email correspondence, obtained by subpoena, that incriminates Dr. Morens in undermining the operations of the U.S. government, unlawfully deleting federal COVID-19 records, using a personal email to avoid the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and repeatedly acting unbecoming of a federal employee. Further, the memo reveals new emails suggesting Dr. Fauci was aware of Dr. Morens’s nefarious behavior and may have even engaged in federal records violations himself.”
