OAN Staff Jenna Lee
12:43 PM – Tuesday, April 28, 2026
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday the indictment of Dr. David Morens, a former senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Morens is facing several federal charges related to an alleged scheme to circumvent public records laws and hide communications during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Federal prosecutors say that Morens intentionally concealed official records to stifle public and scientific debate regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the indictment, these efforts to obscure the paper trail were incentivized by various illegal gratuities, which included gifts of wine and promises of future meals at luxury restaurants in exchange for his cooperation.
Morens is 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,” according to a DOJ press release.
“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 in a statement.
“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,” he stated. “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.”
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed evidence in 2024 that Morens used his personal email to discuss NIH grants with the infectious disease group EcoHealth Alliance. He notably used his personal email outside the scope of FOIA requests.
The indictment details a collaborative effort involving co-conspirators Dr. Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, and Dr. Gerald Keusch, an NIH grantee and associate director at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory Institute.
At the center of the controversy is EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching global disease threats, which provided funding for viral studies at a laboratory in Wuhan, China — a facility that has faced intense scrutiny as a probable source of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Morens allegedly worked alongside these individuals to protect the organization’s interests and obscure communications related to their research activities.
“There are things I can’t say except Tony is aware and I have learned that there are ongoing efforts within NIH to steer this through with minimal damage to you, Peter, and colleagues, and to NIH and NIAID,” wrote Morens to Daszak and Keusch in an email from a private account on April 26, 2020.
As a tangible example of the alleged illicit gratuities, the indictment cites a bottle of “The Prisoner” Red Napa Valley Wine shipped to Morens’ Maryland residence in June 2020. This delivery represents just one piece of the broader evidence against the former adviser, who now faces a serious legal reckoning.
If convicted on all counts, Morens could be sentenced to a maximum of 51 years in federal prison.
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