Former Fauci aide charged with concealing Covid records | Trump administration
A former adviser to former top US health official Anthony Fauci has been indicted by Trump administration prosecutors on charges that he illegally withheld federal records during the Covid pandemic.
The justice department on Tuesday announced charges against David Morens, 78, of Chester, Maryland, amid a bitterly divisive debate over the origins of the coronavirus that has become particularly politicized during Donald Trump’s two presidencies. Rival theories, including a potential laboratory leak versus a natural spread, have fueled partisan conflict along with divisions along ideological lines.
From 2006 to 2022, Morens served as a senior advisor in the office of the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid). Fauci was Niaid’s director from 1984 to 2022 and led the White House’s response to the pandemic during Donald Trump’s first presidency.
In addition to criticizing Fauci and other scientists for downplaying the lab leak theory, Trump and his Republican allies have criticized Fauci for urging Americans to take precautions to protect themselves from the spread and transmission of the potentially deadly virus, including wearing masks and getting vaccinated.
The Trump administration’s justice department alleged two co-conspirators in the indictment against Morens but declined to name them.
Morens’ attorney, Timothy Belevetz, declined a request for comment.
According to the indictment, Niaid awarded a research grant to a company and an unnamed co-conspirator, who then gave a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), where Niaid was housed, later terminated the grant based on claims that Covid may have originated in the Wuhan laboratory.
After the grant ended, prosecutors alleged that Morens and others tried to help restore funding and allegedly tried to “counter the narrative that Covid-19 was leaked from a laboratory.”
The justice department alleged in a statement that Morens and two co-conspirators — anticipating that their communications would be requested under the federal Freedom of Information Act — “agreed in writing to intentionally conceal their correspondence from the public using Morens’ personal Gmail account rather than his official NIH email account.”
Prosecutors alleged that the group used Morens’ personal email to share nonpublic NIH information, coordinate efforts to influence funding decisions, help draft and edit letters aimed at persuading leadership at the institutes, and exchange “back-channel” communications with senior officials.
The justice department also alleged that Morens and a co-conspirator planned to “pay illegal tips,” sending Morens wine for “behind-the-scenes shenanigans” and arranging for delivery to his home in Maryland.
“Morens then allegedly identified a formal action he could take to ‘deserve’ the gift, a scientific interpretation published in a leading medical journal arguing that Covid-19 had natural origins,” the justice department’s statement continued.
The same co-conspirator allegedly suggested providing Morens with “additional items of value, including meals at Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, New York, and Washington, DC.”
Acting US attorney Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer, said in a statement: “These allegations represent a profound breach of trust at a time when the American people need it most – at the height of the global pandemic.”
Morens faces charges including conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealing, removing or falsifying records; and aiding and abetting.
If ultimately convicted, Morens could face up to five years in prison for the conspiracy charge, up to 20 years in prison for each count of falsifying records, and up to three years in prison for each count of concealing or destroying records.
