The Justice Department has indicted David M. Morens, a former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) employee and senior advisor to Anthony Fauci, for allegedly concealing records regarding the origin of COVID-19.
The 78-year-old has been charged with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting.
“Morens served as a senior advisor in NIAID’s Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022,” the Justice Department stated in a press release.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Top Advisor David Morens has just been INDICTED by the DOJ. This is GOOD NEWS,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said.
“Dr. David Morens deliberately obstructed @COVIDSelect’s investigation into the origins of COVID. He even admitted to me under oath that he deleted ‘a lot’ of emails,” he added.
🚨Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Top Advisor David Morens has just been INDICTED by the DOJ.
This is GOOD NEWS.
Dr. David Morens deliberately obstructed @COVIDSelect’s investigation into the origins of COVID. He even admitted to me under oath that he deleted “a lot” of emails.
WATCH👇 https://t.co/zxyGt7IBcw
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) April 28, 2026
Fox News explained further:
Prosecutors allege that Morens conspired with others during the pandemic to hide communications related to a controversial coronavirus research grant that involved collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The grant was later terminated amid scrutiny over whether COVID-19 may have originated from a lab leak.
The indictment alleges that Morens and his associates deliberately moved conversations off official government systems and onto private email accounts to keep them from public disclosure. The communications allegedly included internal discussions about COVID research, efforts to influence funding decisions, and exchanges related to messaging on the virus’s origins.
The indictment also alleges that Morens played a behind-the-scenes role in relaying information to senior agency leadership, who in turn briefed the White House, Congress and the public during the pandemic.
Federal prosecutors also claim that Morens received gifts from a collaborator — including wine and offers of high-end meals — and later took steps to justify those perks by contributing to a scientific publication supporting the theory that COVID-19 emerged naturally rather than from the Wuhan lab.
“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,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“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,” he continued.
“Circumventing records protocols with the intention of avoiding transparency is something that will not be tolerated by this FBI,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.
“Not only did Morens allegedly engage in the illegal obfuscation of his communications, but he received kickbacks for doing so. If you have engaged in activity conspiring against the United States, we will not stop until you face justice,” he added.
Anthony Fauci adviser indicted by Department of Justice
David Morens, 78, has been charged with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and…
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) April 28, 2026
More from the New York Post:
“[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 one April 21, 2021, email. “He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”
Two months prior, Morens said in a Feb. 24 email: “[I] learned from our foia [sic] lady here how to make emails disappear after I am foia’d [sic] but before the search starts.”
“Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail [sic],” he noted.
On Sept. 9, 2021, Morens wrote that he would “always communicate on gmail [sic] because my NIH email is FOIA’d constantly” and “delete anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times.”
Morens oversaw a now-infamous grant from NIH to the Manhattan-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance beginning in 2014 that ended up funneling US taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research.
