On April 28, 2026, a federal grand jury indicted Dr. David Morens, 78, of Chester, Maryland — senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 2006 through 2022. The charges: conspiracy against the United States, destruction and falsification of federal records, concealment and mutilation of records, and aiding and abetting.
The indictment, filed in the District of Maryland and announced by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, alleges Morens coordinated with two co-conspirators to hide their communications from Freedom of Information Act requests. Those co-conspirators, identified in congressional records as EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak and Boston University infectious disease researcher Gerald Keusch, worked with Morens after NIH terminated EcoHealth’s bat coronavirus grant — the grant that included a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The goal, per the indictment, was to restore that grant and counter the lab-leak narrative. To do it without leaving a paper trail, Morens shifted communications to his personal Gmail account.
He documented the method himself. In a February 24, 2021 email to Daszak and Keusch, Morens wrote: “I learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d but before the search starts, so I think we are all safe. Plus, I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to Gmail.” On April 21, 2021, he told Daszak: “I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house.” Tony is identified in the indictment as Senior NIAID Official 1.
The indictment also details a kickback arrangement. After EcoHealth’s grant was restored, Daszak sent Morens wine at his Maryland home, described as payment for “behind-the-scenes shenanigans.” Morens then identified a specific official act to perform in exchange — a scientific commentary published in a prominent medical journal arguing that COVID-19 had natural origins. Additional gratuities promised by Daszak included meals at Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, New York, and Washington.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic had spent two years building the evidentiary record that preceded the indictment. Subpoenaed emails showed Morens coaching co-conspirators on FOIA evasion, sharing nonpublic NIH grant information with Daszak, and coordinating to delay his own congressional testimony until after Fauci testified. In congressional testimony, Morens denied attempting to evade federal transparency laws. In September 2025, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul produced documents showing Fauci directed NIH employees to destroy records — directly contradicting Fauci’s own congressional testimony. Paul called on DOJ to charge Fauci with a felony and stated in July 2025 that Fauci could still be compelled to testify under oath through a congressional subpoena.
Fauci will not face federal charges. President Biden preemptively pardoned him in January 2025 for any federal acts dating back to 2014. The pardon does not cover state charges.
The network mapped in the indictment continues to expand in public reporting. The Charlotte Observer identified a fourth figure, referenced in the indictment as “North Carolina Scientist 1,” as likely being Ralph Baric, the gain-of-function researcher at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Baric has not been charged.
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