A longtime adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci is now facing federal charges in a case tied to the origins of COVID-19 — and allegations of a deliberate effort to keep key records out of public view.
The Department of Justice has indicted David Morens, a former senior adviser at the National Institutes of Health, on multiple felony counts, including conspiracy against the United States and destruction of federal records.
The indictment, unsealed Monday in federal court in Maryland, alleges Morens worked with two unnamed co-conspirators to evade transparency laws during ongoing probes into the pandemic’s origins.
The Department of Justice has indicted David Morens, a former senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci, accusing him of concealing records during investigations into the origins of COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/S5kp30U8Yi
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 28, 2026
Prosecutors say the group “concealed, removed, destroyed and caused the concealment, and removal of federal records to evade FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] and FRA [Federal Records Act].”
Morens, 78, served as a senior adviser to Fauci from 2006 through 2022 and was deeply involved in NIH communications during the early stages of the pandemic.
According to the indictment, he conducted official business through private email accounts and actively sought ways to avoid federal records requests.
“[T]here is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail [sic], or hand it to him at work or at his house,” Morens wrote in an April 21, 2021 email. “He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”
In another exchange dated Feb. 24, 2021, Morens described learning tactics to bypass records searches.
“[I] learned from our foia [sic] lady here how to make emails disappear after I am foia’d [sic] but before the search starts.”
“Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail [sic],” he added.
Months later, Morens reinforced the approach in a Sept. 9, 2021 message.
“I would always communicate on gmail [sic] because my NIH email is FOIA’d constantly” and “delete anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times.”
The case also touches on Morens’ role overseeing a controversial NIH grant awarded in 2014 to EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit that later subcontracted research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
That funding stream has long been at the center of debate over whether U.S. taxpayer dollars indirectly supported research tied to the emergence of COVID-19.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche sharply criticized the alleged conduct.
“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,” Blanche said.
“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.”
More over at The New York Post:
Anthony Fauci adviser indicted by Department of Justice https://t.co/C2AsJcjrRw pic.twitter.com/ZeoaFLuINv
— New York Post (@nypost) April 28, 2026
