Dr. David Morens, a former senior adviser to former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to defraud the United States by concealing federal records related to the origin of COVID-19.

According to the guilty plea, Morens conspired with Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance (referred to as “Co-Conspirator 1”) and others to destroy or hide records after the NIH terminated Eco Health’s bat coronavirus research grant.

NIH terminated the grant, Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence, based on allegations that COVID-19 emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Wuhan, China. NIAID awarded the grant to Company 1 and Co-Conspirator 1, who made a subaward to the WIV.

Following the termination, Morens and Co-Conspirator 2 pledged to help Co-Conspirator 1 restore the termination of the bat coronavirus grant and counter the narrative that COVID-19 leaked from a lab. In anticipation that their communications would be requested through FOIA Requests, Morens, Co-Conspirator 1, and Co-Conspirator 2 agreed in writing to intentionally hide their communications from public view by corresponding using Morens’s personal Gmail account, rather than his official NIH email account.

The 78-year-old admitted to using his private Gmail account to evade the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and hide communications about the controversial coronavirus grant linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The co-conspirators used Morens’s personal Gmail account to exchange non-public NIH information; correspond about their efforts to influence NIH to fund Company 1; exchange edits to drafts of letters addressed to NIH leadership for Company 1 and Co-Conspirator 1; and “back-channel” information to Senior NIAID Official 1. According to court documents, each of these matters fell within Morens’s role as senior advisor and constituted federal records that needed to be created, maintained, and exchanged on government systems.

Additionally, as admitted to in his guilty plea, Morens and Co-Conspirator 1 conspired to pay illegal gratuities. Co-Conspirator 1 gifted Morens wine for his “behind-the-scenes shenanigans,” and arranged for its delivery to Morens’s Maryland residence. Morens then allegedly identified an official act that he could perform to “deserve” the gift, which was to author a scientific commentary in a prominent medical journal advocating that COVID-19 had natural origins. Co-Conspirator 1 suggested he would provide Morens with additional things of value, including meals at Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Morens served in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 2006 to 2022 and was charged with conspiracy against the United States, destruction and falsification of federal records, and concealment of records.

He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, with sentencing scheduled for November 12, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped four other felony charges against him. His defense attorney stated that Morens has “taken responsibility” for his actions.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed the plea deal in a letter to Morens’ attorney, Timothy Belevetz, on June 29.  In the letter, the DOJ mentioned a “sealed supplement” that referred to one other unnamed person who “defrauded the United States,” independent investigative journalist Catherine Herridge pointed out on X.

“Typically a sealed supplement details any cooperation agreement by the defendant (In this case Morens, against co-conspirators) or no cooperation agreement exists, Herridge noted.

As I reported in June, with pressure and the right incentives Morens might be flipped and become a cooperating witness. Morens had a front row seat as a senior advisor to Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a staff memo on May 22, 2024 detailing the alleged wrongdoing and illegal activity of Dr. Morens.

In their 35-page memo, the Subcommittee alleged that Morens had unlawfully deleted records critical to uncovering the origins of COVID-19, used a personal email as a backchannel to help Fauci and Eco Health Alliance avoid transparency, undermined the operations of the U.S. government, likely lied to Congress on multiple occasions, and repeatedly acted in a way that is unbecoming of a federal employee.

Shockingly, someone from the NIH FOIA office appeared to have instructed Morens on how to delete federal records. In multiple emails, Morens admitted to deleting his email correspondence with Daszak and Fauci.

“We are all smart enough to know to never have smoking guns, and if we did we wouldn’t put them in emails and if we found them we’d delete them,” Morens wrote in a June 16, 2020, email.

“[I] learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after I am foia’d but before the search starts,” Morens informed his colleagues in a Feb. 24, 2021, email. “Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.”

“[T]here is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail [sic], or hand it to him at work or at his house,” Morens wrote in an April 21, 2021, email. “He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”

While the investigation is ongoing,  Dr. Fauci has not yet been formally accused of any criminal wrongdoing, though he previously distanced himself from Morens during a 2024 House hearing, the Hill reported.

“With respect to his recent testimony before this subcommittee, I knew nothing of Dr. Morens’s actions regarding Dr. Daszak, EcoHealth or his emails. It is important to point out for the record that despite his title, and even though he was helpful to me in writing scientific papers, Dr. Morens was not an advisor to me on [NIAID] policy, or other substantive issues,” Fauci said at the time.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) reacted to Morens’ guilty plea on X Tuesday, writing: “Could his plea involve implicating Anthony Fauci?”