Dr. David Morens has acknowledged deleting records.
A former government official was charged with illegally conspiring to destroy records, the Department of Justice announced on April 28.
A grand jury indicted Dr. David Morens, who was a senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci from 2006 through 2022, when Fauci was head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The institute is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Morens, 78, conspired with others to destroy and conceal records from Freedom of Information Act requests, including an individual who was not identified by name but matches Dr. Peter Daszak, who helped funnel government money to the high-level laboratory in the Chinese city where COVID-19 first appeared, according to the indictment, which was unsealed on Monday.
In one email on April 25, 2020, after learning that the NIH grant to the laboratory had been canceled, Morens allegedly wrote to Daszak that he was using his Gmail address rather than a government account, saying, “There are things I can’t say except [Fauci] is aware and I have learned that there are ongoing efforts within NIH to steer through this with minimal damage to you … and to NIH and NIAID,” according to the indictment.
In a separate missive about three weeks later, according to the indictment, Morens wrote to Daszak saying he had been told he could “cover” his “rear” by “deleting emails.”
In a third email in August 2020, Morens wrote to Daszak after learning that Daszak’s organization was awarded a $7.5 million grant. “Ahem … do I get a kickback????” Morens wrote, according to prosecutors.
Some of the emails were previously made public.
Morens passed along information he received from Daszak and others to Fauci, according to the indictment, and Daszak allegedly provided him with bottles of wine and promised him additional items of value.
“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.
“Circumventing records protocols with the intention of avoiding transparency is something that will not be tolerated by this FBI,” FBI Director Kash Patel added.
