A longtime senior advisor to Dr. Fauci has been indicted, accused of hiding pandemic communications about COVID-19 origins using private email.
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The Justice Department is accusing a longtime senior advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci of using his private
email to hide communication about the COVID-19 virus from public view while helping to shape the narrative about its origins.
David M. Morens, 78, who served for years as a top advisor within the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was indicted and is accused of using his personal email account to evade federal transparency laws and shield key discussions from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, according to a DOJ indictment unsealed Tuesday.
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.
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.