Former Fauci adviser David Morens pleads guilty to hiding government records linked to COVID-19

Former adviser to US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, David Morens, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents linked to COVID-19 research funding and the pandemic, according to a report by Reuters.

Morens, 78, entered his plea to a conspiracy charge in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. He had served as a senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) during the pandemic and worked under Fauci.

Personal email used to avoid FOIA requests

Prosecutors said Morens and others used personal email accounts to discuss government business because they expected their communications could later be sought through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

The case stems from public records requests received by the agency beginning in April 2020. Prosecutors said Morens was involved in efforts to conceal communications related to COVID-19 research grants, including a grant involving bat coronavirus research.

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Morens had been indicted in April over what prosecutors described as a scheme to thwart those records requests. He faces up to five years in prison and is due to be 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.

Bat coronavirus grant at centre of case

According to prosecutors, Morens also pledged to help restore a bat coronavirus grant that had been cancelled by the National Institutes of Health and to push back against claims that COVID-19 had leaked from a laboratory.

The grant had involved research on bat coronavirus. A China-based laboratory had received a sub-award from the company that held the grant. NIH later cancelled the funding amid allegations that COVID-19 emerged from a Wuhan laboratory.

Fauci not accused of wrongdoing

The case has also drawn attention to Fauci, who led NIAID for 38 years and became the most prominent face of the US government's pandemic response.

Fauci appeared before a Senate panel last month and repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination. He also accused Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a longtime critic, of pursuing an "unhinged" campaign to have him imprisoned.

Prosecutors have not accused Fauci of wrongdoing in connection with Morens' case.

Fauci appeared before a US House panel in 2024, where he played down how closely he worked with Morens and denied using a private email account to discuss government business.

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COVID origins remain unresolved

The guilty plea comes as the debate over the origins of COVID-19 remains unresolved. The FBI said in 2023 that a leak from a Wuhan laboratory likely caused the pandemic, a claim China rejected as having "no credibility whatsoever."

In January 2025, the CIA also said a laboratory leak was likely, but with "low confidence." Four other US intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council concluded that the virus most likely emerged through natural transmission from an animal.

Morens' case centres on the handling of government records during one of the most closely scrutinised periods of the pandemic, with prosecutors alleging that private email was deliberately used to keep some communications outside the scope of public records requests.