– The Washington Times
The Justice Department announced a groundbreaking criminal case Tuesday against Dr. Anthony Fauci’s former top aide at the National Institutes of Health, accusing him of suppressing information about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. David Morens was Dr. Fauci’s senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he oversaw the agency’s grants, including one that funded risky research at the Wuhan lab in China suspected of being the source of the virus.
In a new indictment, the government charged that Dr. Morens conspired to argue that the Wuhan lab wasn’t at fault, tried to delete emails with the firm that funded the research at Wuhan, and sought to use his private email to hide his actions from the public.
Prosecutors said he tried to get the government to restart funding to EcoHealth Alliance, the firm that acted as the go-between for taxpayer money to reach China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. They also charged that he accepted gifts from the organization’s leadership for his “behind-the-scenes shenanigans.”
“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,” said Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general. “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.”
Dr. Morens faces charges of destruction, alteration or falsification of records in a federal investigation; concealment, removal or mutilation of records; aiding and abetting; and conspiracy against the U.S.
The case was brought in federal court in Maryland, where Dr. Morens made a first appearance Monday. A magistrate judge said he may remain free from custody.
An attorney for Dr. Morens declined to comment on the case.
Dr. Fauci, who was the face of government efforts concerning the pandemic and helped forge some of the controversial guidance on shutdowns and masking, went on to become President Biden’s chief medical adviser.
Mr. Biden, just before leaving office last year, issued Dr. Fauci a preemptive pardon to block any prosecution by the Trump administration.
The indictment says Judicial Watch, a conservative group, filed the first FOIA for records of Dr. Morens or EcoHealth on April 22, 2020. A host of others followed.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the prosecution was the first time he could recall a criminal case over FOIA violations.
“It’s a remarkable development. It shows that thwarting FOIA can be a criminal offense,” he said. “I hope it’s the first of many.”
U.S. Right to Know was another group whose FOIA attempt was hindered by Dr. Morens, according to the indictment.
“It is refreshing to see the Department of Justice stand up for transparency in this powerful way,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of U.S. Right to Know.
The 29-page indictment was returned by a federal grand jury April 16.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee who has been a legal combatant against the Trump administration in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation case.
The indictment portrays Dr. Morens as Dr. Fauci’s key aide, preparing him for his interactions with Congress and the White House and controlling some of the information that reached Dr. Fauci.
That includes serving as the go-between for information from EcoHealth Alliance — the firm that siphoned U.S. taxpayer money to the Wuhan lab for bat coronavirus research — and EcoHealth’s chief, Peter Daszak.
As the pandemic worsened in 2020, Dr. Morens and Mr. Daszak exchanged ideas on how to explain what was happening.
At first, their communications were on government email accounts. Eventually, Dr. Morens shifted some conversations to private email, the indictment said, illegally shielding them from open-records requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
“I need to keep this correspondence off of USG emails for obvious reasons, so am sending from gmail,” Dr. Morens wrote in one May 3, 2020, email where he made clear he was hiding from “multiple FOIAs already.” In a message 12 days later, he said he had been told he could “cover” himself by “deleting emails and making use of foia delays.”
EcoHealth Alliance has been dinged by federal investigators for funding risky bat research at the Wuhan lab and then obfuscating the results. The firm has denied that its funds were used for dangerous experiments.
The origins of the pandemic remain unsettled, though some U.S. agencies say the likeliest explanation is that the virus leaked from the lab. Another explanation holds that it naturally infected an animal and then infected humans.
More than 7 million people worldwide, including 1.2 million in the U.S., have died from the virus, according to the World Health Organization.
As EcoHealth Alliance faced criticism in the spring of 2020, Dr. Morens wrote a scholarly piece challenging the lab-leak theory. The indictment says the piece “was intended to benefit” EcoHealth and Mr. Daszak.
After EcoHealth won a new $7.5 million grant in August 2020, Dr. Morens emailed from his official account asking, “do I get a kickback???”
Mr. Daszak responded to Dr. Morens’ Gmail account, saying there would be a kickback: “5 more years of FOIA requests” and “I just hope it doesn’t culminate in 5 years in federal jail.”
In 2021, after Dr. Morens and Dr. Fauci received a “huge” FOIA request for documents mentioning Wuhan, Dr. Morens assured Mr. Daszak that his name “will not show up in this FOIA, at least not from my info.”
EcoHealth Alliance was suspended from NIH grants in 2024 after the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a high-profile hearing on the firm’s activities.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
