Former Fauci Adviser Pleads Guilty to Concealing Covid-Related Records
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Former Fauci Adviser Pleads Guilty to Trying to Conceal Covid-Related Records Dr. David Morens, a former N.I.H. official, admitted to attempts to conceal emails that discussed the origins of the pandemic.
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Fox NewsDavid Morens, a former advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci and senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to evade records requests involving COVID-19 research grants, FBI Director Kash Patel announced.
Washington TimesDr. David Morens, who spent years as chief of staff to Dr. Anthony Fauci, pleaded guilty Tuesday to trying to hide critical documents about the origin of the coronavirus pandemic and his attempts to restore funding to a firm that was siphoning U.S. cash to a Chinese virus lab.
The FederalistAccording to the Department of Justice, Dr. David Morens pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge “to commit offenses and to defraud the United States.” Morens was indicted by federal prosecutors in April and previously served as a senior advisor to Fauci — the now-former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — from 2006-2022.
The Guardian USDavid 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.
ABC NewsThe indictment follows a probe by House Republicans into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that scrutinized Morens’ email communications and accused him of intentionally concealing records. In congressional testimony, Morens denied attempting to evade federal transparency laws by using his personal email.
The Daily WireDr. David Morens, the longtime senior science adviser to Anthony Fauci, pleaded guilty this week to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States.
RealClearPoliticsFormer Fauci Adviser Pleads Guilty in Covid Records Scheme
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That company, EcoHealth Alliance, was paying for what U.S. investigators say was risky bat coronavirus research in Wuhan, using money from the National Institutes of Health’s infectious diseases division, where Dr. Fauci and Morens worked.
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The FederalistSome observers have suggested that Co-Conspirator 1 is former EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak. As Federalist Senior Contributor Helen Raleigh previously reported, from 2014-2020, EcoHealth sent “more than half a million dollars’ worth of U.S. government grants, including those from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with Anthony Fauci’s approval, to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses.”
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In July, Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a congressional hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last Friday, Fauci declined a request to appear voluntarily before a second Senate panel after majority Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee voted along partisan lines to hold him in contempt of Congress. Fauci wasn't charged in the case against Morens, 78, of Chester, Maryland.
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The Daily WireFauci himself appeared before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on July 29 and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times.
The Guardian USThe plea came after Fauci, who led the Niaid for 38 years and became the face of the US 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.
Washington TimesHe invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has voted to hold him in contempt of Congress. That matter now awaits action in the full Senate.
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Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 Fox News "This is sent from my gmail account. Please send all replies here To gmail ... There are things I cant say except [Senior NIAID official 1] is aware and I have learned that there are ongoing efforts within NIH to steer through this with minimal damage to you, [Co-Conspirator 1], and colleagues, and to nih and niaid," Morens wrote to a colleague, according to emails released by the committee.
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02 The Federalist Similar to Fauci, Daszak previously dismissed the lab leak theory as a “conspiracy theor[y].”
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03 The Guardian US 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.
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04 Washington Times He “concealed” and “destroyed” some of the records to keep them from being made public under open-records laws, according to his plea.
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05 The Daily Wire The 78-year-old former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official entered the plea after an April indictment. He faces a maximum of five years in federal prison as well as a $250,000 fine, The Washington Examiner reported.
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