Former Aide to Anthony Fauci Indicted for Concealing COVID-19 Records

On Apr. 16, 2026, a federal grand jury in Maryland indicted David M. Morens on charges that he conspired to conceal government records from the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Morens, 78, served as senior adviser to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 2006 to 2022, working directly under Anthony Fauci.¹ NIAID, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, (NIH) played a leading role in the response to COVID and was responsible for providing public health guidance and information about the nature, origin and effects of the novel coronavirus.²

The indictment charges Morens with five counts: conspiracy against the United States, destruction and falsification of records in a federal investigation, concealment of federal records, and aiding and abetting. If convicted on all counts, Morens faces up to five years for the conspiracy charge, up to 20 years for each count of destruction or falsification of records, and up to three years for each count of concealment.³

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said:

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. As alleged in the indictment, Dr. Morens and his co-conspirators deliberately concealed information and falsified records in an effort to suppress alternative theories regarding the origins of COVID-19. 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.⁴

Morens Charged With Colluding to “Make Emails Disappear”

The indictment alleges that Morens and two co-conspirators agreed to conduct official government business through his personal Gmail account rather than the government issued email accounts, so that their communications would not be captured by Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIA).⁵

In a 2021 email message, Morens wrote:

I learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d, but before the search starts, so I think we are all safe. Plus, I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to Gmail.⁶

The records official has allegedly been identified as Margaret Moore, a longtime NIAID FOIA officer whom Morens and colleagues referred to internally as the “FOIA lady.” Morens and his co-conspirators used Moren’s personal account to exchange emails about the bat coronavirus research grant, and requests for documents about the origins of the COVID pandemic.⁷

Representative James Comer of Kentucky, former chair of the COVID special subcommittee, stated:

We caught Dr. Morens red-handed as he boasted in emails about how the ‘FOIA lady’ coached him on how to hide records and cover-up information.⁸

The emails allude to the fact that Fauci knew about the plan to use private emails to avoid accountability. Morens wrote in one email:

I can either send stuff to Tony on his private Gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.⁹

Fauci denied knowing about the emails sent on a private server. In a 2024 subcommittee hearing, Dr. Fauci wrote:

[To] the best of my knowledge I have never conducted official business via my personal email.¹⁰

EcoHealth Alliance

The indictment centers on a 2019 federal research grant titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence” in the amount of $4 million dollars which was awarded to EcoHealth Alliance, New York-based research organization. EcoHealth made a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, which is alleged to be ground zero for the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. NIH later terminated the grant based in part on allegations that the mutated coronavirus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.^{11 12 13}

After NIH terminated the grant, Morens and his co-conspirators worked to restore funding for EcoHealth. They also worked to counter the claim that SARS-CoV-2 may have originated in a lab, at times using private email channels to conceal those efforts.¹⁴

Gifts in Exchange for Continued Cover-up

In June 2020, Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance sent Morens two bottles of wine as one of, “a continued series of expressions of gratitude for your advice, support and behind-the-scenes shenanigans” on the organization’s behalf, according to the indictment. The EcoHealth president also promised Morens a dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant.^{15 16}

After receiving this gift, Morens was the lead author of a scientific paper titled “The Origins of COVID and Why It Matters,” which argued that the SARS-CoV-2 virus had natural origins rather than a biohazard laboratory source. The U.S. Justice Department alleges the paper was written to benefit EcoHealth and its president.¹⁷

Morens, who earned a medical degree from the University of Michigan and held positions at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) before joining NIH, worked in NIAID’s Office of the Director throughout the COVID pandemic. He left the agency in 2022 along with former NIAID director Anthony Fauci, MD.¹⁸

The two unnamed co-conspirators in the indictment are considered to be Daszak, as well as Gerald Keusch, a retired infectious disease researcher at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health.¹⁹

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