David Morens, a former senior advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to conceal federal records related to the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X Tuesday: “After an FBI investigation with our DOJ partners, Dr. Fauci’s associate, David Morens, just pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a scheme to avoid FOIA requests and the Federal Records Act connected to COVID-19 research grants.
“The FBI uncovered that Morens, Co-Conspirator 1, Co-Conspirator 2, and others conspired during the COVID-19 pandemic to defraud the United States after the National Institutes of Health terminated Co-Conspirator 1’s grant.
“NIH terminated the grant, ‘Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,’ based on allegations that COVID-19 emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Wuhan, China.
“Mr. Morens and his co-conspirators then agreed in writing to intentionally hide their communications from public view by corresponding through Morens’s personal Gmail account rather than his official NIH email account.
“This FBI investigation remains ongoing. No one is above the law.”
Morens, 78, of Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States, according to the Department of Justice. He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 12 by US District Judge Paula Xinis and faces up to five years in prison and a fine of as much as $250,000 on the felony conspiracy charge.
The case centers on efforts to keep government communications from being disclosed through federal public-records requests. In a 2021 email later obtained by a House committee, Morens discussed methods for making government emails “disappear after I am FOIA’d,” referring to the Freedom of Information Act.
Morens worked at NIAID under Fauci for more than a decade, serving as a senior advisor in the agency’s Office of the Director from 2006 until 2022. His guilty plea comes as congressional investigators have intensified their examination of how federal officials handled the COVID-19 pandemic and preserved government records during that period.
The development also puts renewed attention on Morens’ relationship with Fauci, who was questioned about the former aide during a contentious Senate hearing in which Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times.
Fauci previously addressed Morens’ conduct during a House hearing in 2024, describing the alleged efforts to circumvent federal records requirements as wrong while denying that he personally participated in them.
The Morens case is part of a broader examination by Republican lawmakers into the federal government’s handling of the pandemic. Congressional investigators have released additional records from Fauci’s time leading NIAID, including portions of his diary and messages recovered from a government-issued phone.
Some of those records have drawn scrutiny over differences between private discussions among officials and statements made publicly during the pandemic.
Morens’ guilty plea now provides prosecutors with a criminal conviction tied to the concealment of federal records, while congressional investigators continue examining the broader conduct of officials involved in the government’s COVID-19 response.
