David Morens, a longtime associate of Anthony Fauci, the ex-chief of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Joe Biden’s top COVID-19 adviser who now has been revealed to have been saying one thing about the health threat in private while telling the public the opposite, has pleaded guilty.
A report at Politico explains Morens admitted in court to conspiracy to evade federal public record laws “in connection with communications about coronavirus research grants.”
“The plea comes three weeks after Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) grilled Fauci about his relationship with Morens. At the Senate hearing, Fauci declined to answer questions, exercising his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. Two years ago, Fauci told a House Committee investigating the country’s response to the Covid pandemic that Morens’ actions were ‘wrong’ and that he had not participated in them,” the report said.
There remain many questions about the behavior of government officials before, during and after the COVID-19 China virus that killed millions around the world.
In the U.S. the government and corporations imposed mandatory shots that have proved to be injurious to many people, closed down schools depriving children of the opportunity to learn and shut down the economy, all because of demands like injections, masks and social distancing that largely were ineffectual.
The 78-year-old Morens’ case included a 2021 email from him that a House panel uncovered where he said he could “make emails disappear before I am FOIA’d” to avoid disclosure under federal open records requirements.
He was in court in Greenbelt, Maryland, this week and pleaded guilty in a plea deal, court records said.
Judge Paula Xinis scheduled sentencing for Nov. 12, and he faces up to five years behind bars on felony conspiracy charges, and-or a fine up $250,000.
The report charged, “Morens and other former top officials at the National Institutes of Health, including Fauci, have come under intense scrutiny in recent years from Republican lawmakers and outside groups over their decisions related to the pandemic.
“One particular focus of NIH critics has been how officials there dealt with the possibility that the virus emerged from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan, China, rather than jumping from animals to people.”
Fauci himself has been accused of covering up a lab leak, trying to suppress the science in the outbreak, even as he was instructing Americans, “I am science.”
David M. Morens — who worked under Anthony Fauci from 2006 to 2022 — admitted he hid government communications to skirt public records laws and thwart inquiries into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/RVd1ukSvic
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 18, 2026
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,… pic.twitter.com/IR7TCUm10m
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 18, 2026
🇺🇸 Fauci’s longtime right-hand man just pled guilty to conspiring to defraud the U.S.
David Morens spent years helping bury COVID-related records through private emails, deletions, and FOIA workarounds.
Rand Paul flagged him years ago.
Now Morens is admitting it in court and…
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 18, 2026
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has charged that coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of NIH and which Fauci led for decades, likely sparked the pandemic.
Fauci actually has been held in contempt of Congress over his actions, and the Department of Justice has been asked to investigate and determine whether a case should be brought.
Fauci has not been accused of doing anything wrong in the case involving Morens.
But the report confirms, “A statement of facts Morens agreed to as part of the plea deal says he repeatedly consulted behind the scenes with an outside researcher, Peter Daszak, to prepare briefings for Fauci that undercut theories that the coronavirus pandemic emerged from a Chinese laboratory that worked with Daszak and his research group, EcoHealth Alliance, on a NIAID-funded grant.”
The case revolved around actions by Morens and other “co-conspirators” to restore a federal grant for EcoHealth Alliance after the NIH ended it because of allegations about Wuhan’s lab being the source for COVID.
The report said, “Anticipating that their communications would be the subject of Freedom of Information Act requests, Morens (and co-conspirators) agreed in writing to hide their exchanges by using Morens’ personal Gmail account, rather than his official NIH email account, the court filing says.”
Prosecutors dropped obstruction and other charges in exchange for Morens’ plea to conspiracy.
