A former senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is facing charges for allegedly conspiring with others to hide federal records concerning research into viruses similar to COVID-19.
A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted David Morens, a former senior adviser to ex-NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, on April 16 over allegations that he used his personal email to hide correspondence from federal public records requests.
The five counts against Morens include conspiring against the U.S.; destroying, altering or falsifying records in federal investigations; and concealing, removing or mutilating records. A federal magistrate judge unsealed the indictment Monday.
From 2020 to 2022, Morens’ communications with the CEO of a New York company researching the origins of coronavirus diseases and an academic scientist who also received grants from the National Institutes of Health were subject to Freedom of Information Act Requests, according to the indictment. Judicial Watch, the Whistleblower Protection Project, Science magazine and the Heritage Foundation were among the groups that submitted requests.
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Morens is scheduled to appear in court for his arraignment on May 8. His attorney declined to comment.
The indictment lists excerpts of emails Morens exchanged with the alleged co-conspirators discussing the FOIA requests seeking records about so-called gain-of-function research, a controversial research method that sometimes involves genetically altering viruses to make them deadlier or more transmissible. The correspondence also captured discussions about Morens attempting to counter the narrative that the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a leak from a lab in China and using personal email accounts to avoid releasing the information.
For example, in February 2021, Morens wrote that he had “learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear.” In November 2021, he wrote that his Gmail was safe from FOIA.
Records released during congressional investigations into Morens and analyzed by Politico indicate that the co-conspirators referenced in the indictment are Gerald Keusch, an emeritus professor of medicine at Boston University and former NIH official; and Peter Daszak, the former president of EcoHealth Alliance, which the Department of Health and Human Services barred from accessing federal funding in 2025.
Correspondence between Morens, Keusch and Daszak was the subject of a 2024 report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
The World Health Organization and the scientific community at large consider zoonotic spillover from animals to humans as the most likely origin of the virus that causes COVID-19. However, the Trump administration holds that the virus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel touted the indictment in a Tuesday press release.
“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,” Blanche said. “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.”
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