A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States in a scheme to hide federal records. David Morens, 78, reached a deal with federal prosecutors in Maryland after being indicted in April on charges related to shielding COVID-19 pandemic records from public disclosure.
Morens served as a senior adviser in the NIAID Office of the Director from 2006 to 2022. The case involves his communications with a New York-based nonprofit that received a 2014 grant to study bat coronavirus emergence, part of which was subawarded to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which oversees NIAID, terminated that grant in April 2020 following allegations that COVID-19 originated from the lab.
According to court filings, Morens and two co-conspirators agreed to use Morens' personal Gmail account to exchange information about the pandemic and the terminated grant to evade the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Prosecutors said the group used this "back-channel" to share nonpublic NIH data with an unidentified senior official, whom court documents identify as former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci. Morens also admitted to receiving illegal gratuities, including two bottles of wine from a co-conspirator in June 2020 as a reward for his "behind-the-scenes shenanigans."
The scale of the conspiracy involved a grant originally issued in 2014 and continued through the height of the pandemic response. Morens faces a maximum of five years in federal prison for his role. While the specific number of documents withheld or the dollar value of the nonpublic information shared was not reported, the case centers on the circumvention of federal laws governing the conduct of high-ranking scientists and advisers within the $48 billion NIH system.
This case sets a precedent regarding the use of personal email for official government business among senior health officials. It follows extensive congressional investigations into the NIAID’s handling of the pandemic and its relationship with the EcoHealth Alliance. The fallout continues to impact related institutions; Fauci was recently held in contempt of Congress by the Senate Homeland Security panel after invoking the Fifth Amendment during testimony. Morens will be sentenced at a later date, while the Justice Department reviews the contempt referral for Fauci.