Fauci aide pleads guilty over hidden COVID records

A former adviser to infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents related to ​grant research funding and the COVID-19 pandemic.

David Morens, who had worked under Fauci ‌as a senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the pandemic, entered his plea, to a conspiracy charge during a hearing in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The 78-year-old had been indicted ​in April on charges related to what prosecutors said was a scheme to thwart ​public records requests received by the agency beginning in April 2020 related ⁠to COVID-19 research grants.

He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced ​on November 12.

“By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, ​and he will continue to do so," Timothy Belevetz, his lawyer, said in a statement.

The plea came after Fauci, who led the NIAID for 38 years and became the face of the U.S. pandemic response, ​appeared before a Senate panel last month and repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination as he ​accused Republican Senator Rand Paul, a longtime adversary from Kentucky, of pursuing an "unhinged" campaign to see him ‌imprisoned.

COVID's ⁠origins remain unresolved. The FBI said in 2023 that a leak from a Wuhan laboratory likely caused the pandemic, a claim China said had "no credibility whatsoever." The CIA said in January 2025 a lab leak was likely, but with "low confidence," while four other U.S. intelligence agencies ​and the National Intelligence ​Council believe the virus ⁠most likely emerged via natural transmission from some animal.

Prosecutors said that Morens' plea related to the National Institutes of Health's decision to ​cancel a research grant related to bat coronavirus, based on allegations that ​COVID-19 emerged ⁠from the Wuhan lab. The China-based lab had received a sub-award from the company that had received the grant.

Prosecutors said that Morens pledged to help restore the bat coronavirus grant and counter ⁠the ​narrative COVID-19 leaked from a lab.

Anticipating their communications would ​be sought through Freedom of Information Act requests, Morens and others agreed to correspond using Morens’ personal email account ​instead of his government one, prosecutors said.

-Reuters