Washington — A former top adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has admitted guilt in a federal case tied to efforts to conceal government records during the COVID-19 pandemic.
David Morens, 78, entered the plea as part of a deal with federal prosecutors in Maryland. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses and defraud the United States, a charge that carries a possible sentence of up to five years in prison.
Morens, who served as a senior adviser in NIAID’s Office of the Director from 2006 until 2022, was indicted in April on five counts. Prosecutors alleged he played a role in a broader effort to keep federal records connected to the COVID-19 pandemic out of public view.
His attorney, Tim Belevetz, said in a statement, “By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did and will continue to do so.”
According to prosecutors, Morens coordinated with two alleged co-conspirators. One, identified in court filings as “co-conspirator 1,” was the president and CEO of a New York nonprofit organization that received a 2014 grant called “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” Prosecutors said the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, later received a subaward from that organization under the coronavirus research grant. The National Institutes of Health ended the award in April 2020 after allegations surfaced that COVID-19 may have originated from the lab. NIAID operates under the NIH.
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Court documents described the second alleged co-conspirator as a physician, scientist and professor affiliated with an academic institution that received federal grant funding.
Emails released by the Republican-led Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic suggest the New York nonprofit was EcoHealth Alliance and that “co-conspirator 1” was its president, Peter Daszak.
The case grew out of multiple Freedom of Information Act requests sent to NIAID between April 2020 and December 2022, seeking communications involving Morens, the New York-based nonprofit and its president.
According to the guilty plea, Morens and the two co-conspirators agreed to exchange emails about COVID-19 and its origins, as well as the terminated coronavirus grant, through Morens’ personal Gmail account, rather than his official NIH account, to hide federal records and evade public records laws.
Morens and his co-conspirators also used his Gmail account to share nonpublic information from the NIH about COVID-19 and “back-channel” information to an unidentified senior NIAID official, who appears to be Anthony Fauci, the institute’s former director, according to court filings.
Morens also admitted as part of his guilty plea that he and co-conspirator 1 conspired to pay illegal gratuities. Court records show that Morens received two bottles of wine in June 2020 from co-conspirator 1 for his “behind-the-scenes shenanigans,” which were delivered to his Maryland house.
The agreement states co-conspirator 1 also told Morens in an email to his personal account that he could provide additional items of value, such as a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Congressional Republicans investigated the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab and Fauci’s handling of the pandemic.
Fauci and Morens each appeared before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2024. During his appearance, Morens was questioned about emails suggesting he was attempting to bypass public-records rules.
Fauci distanced himself from the investigation into Morens in 2024 and told lawmakers that Morens was not an adviser to him on “institute policy or other substantive issues.” Fauci also acknowledged that many of Morens’ actions were wrong and violated agency policy, and denied using his personal email to conduct official business.
Fauci has continued to come under scrutiny from Republicans in Congress. Text messages and diary entries from Fauci during the pandemic were made public by the GOP in recent weeks, and Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month. During that appearance, Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer senators’ questions.
The Senate Homeland Security panel voted earlier this month to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress following the hearing. The referral has been sent to the Justice Department.
