A longtime Fauci adviser has pleaded guilty to conspiring to hide government communications tied to controversial COVID-19 research as the FBI continues its investigation.
Dr. David Morens, 78, a longtime senior National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) adviser under Dr. Anthony Fauci, pleaded guilty Aug. 18 to a federal conspiracy charge carrying up to five years in prison.
DOJ says Morens and his co-conspirators agreed to conceal communications after NIH terminated a bat-coronavirus grant over allegations that COVID-19 emerged from the Wuhan lab.
NIAID had awarded the grant to an organization and its leader, who subsequently made a subaward to the lab.
The Justice Department’s plea announcement identifies them only as “Company 1” and “Co-Conspirator 1.”
After the grant was terminated, Morens and another co-conspirator pledged to help restore the funding and “counter the narrative that COVID-19 leaked from a lab,” according to DOJ.
They agreed to use his personal Gmail to evade public scrutiny, exchanging non-public NIH information and “back-channel” communications.
DOJ said the communications were federal records required to be maintained on government systems.
