David Morens, a former longtime aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci, has pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge tied to efforts to evade public records requests for COVID-related communications, according to the Department of Justice as cited by The Post Millennial.
Morens, 78, of Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. He served as a senior adviser in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022, during Fauci’s tenure, according to the report.
Emails moved off government systems
The case centers on Morens’ use of a personal email account for communications that federal prosecutors said should have been preserved and available through public records laws.
According to the source report, Morens admitted in federal court that he routed politically sensitive emails to a personal account so they would not be captured by Freedom of Information Act requests.
Congressional investigators previously surfaced a 2021 email in which Morens wrote about how to “make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d,” according to the report.
EcoHealth Alliance connection
The source report also says court filings described communications between Morens and Peter Daszak, the former president of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit linked in public reporting to NIH-funded research involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
According to the report, Daszak sent Morens two bottles of wine with a thank-you note that referred to his “advice, support, and behind-the-scenes shenanigans.”
Morens now faces a potential sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The source report lists sentencing for November 12.
Broader questions remain
The guilty plea is likely to renew scrutiny of how pandemic-related communications were handled inside federal health agencies, especially records involving COVID origins, research funding, and public transparency.
