The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced April 28 that it had indicted Dr. David Morens, a former senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci, on federal charges of conspiring to conceal and falsify records from investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Morens, 78, is from Maryland and served as a senior adviser in the Office of the Director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 2006 to 2022.
Prosecutors charged him with conspiracy against the U.S.; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting, according to a DOJ press release. If convicted, Morens faces up to five years in prison for conspiracy, up to 20 years for each count of destruction of records, and up to three years for each count of concealment.
According to the indictment, Morens and alleged co-conspirators used his personal Gmail account to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests after the National Institutes of Health terminated a grant titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” The grant, awarded to a company with a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was canceled amid allegations that COVID-19 may have emerged from the lab, the DOJ said.
Prosecutors allege Morens and the unnamed co-conspirators sought to restore the funding and counter the lab-leak theory by hiding communications that should have been preserved as federal records.
The indictment also alleges that Morens received or was promised gifts — including bottles of wine delivered to his home and offers of meals at Michelin-starred restaurants — in exchange for official acts favorable to EcoHealth Alliance, the grant recipient. Morens allegedly wrote that he would need to do something to “deserve” the gift, which the DOJ said referred to a scientific commentary advocating for a natural origin of COVID-19.
“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,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the release. “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.”
FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes for the District of Maryland also emphasized in the release that the charges represent a violation of public trust and transparency obligations.
“Weaponization of the USG [United States government] by its senior members in a time of global pandemic, who were entrusted to protect us. They violated that trust and the law- destroyed records the public had every right to see,” Patel wrote in a post on X. “They covered up and got caught by this @FBI and @TheJustice Dept.”
Weaponization of the USG by its senior members in a time of global pandemic, who were entrusted to protect us. They violated that trust and the law- destroyed records the public had every right to see. They covered up and got caught by this @FBI and @TheJusticeDept…
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) April 28, 2026
The case stems in part from prior investigations by the House Oversight Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. According to that subcommittee’s findings, Morens seemed to suggest in some emails that Fauci was aware of his misconduct.
The Hill reported that Morens wrote in one email exchange, “I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”
Fauci, in his opening statement before his 2024 hearing in front of the subcommittee, distanced himself from Morens and said he “knew nothing” of the emails. He said his former colleague was “not an adviser to me on institute policy or other substantive issues.”