WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against a former National Institutes of Health official, accusing him of deliberately hiding records connected to COVID-19 research funding and using personal email accounts to conduct government work.
David Morens, who served as a senior administrator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the coronavirus outbreak, was indicted by a Maryland grand jury on charges of working to conceal federal records requests that came to the agency from April 2020 through December 2022.
The criminal charges, which were initially filed under seal on April 16 before being made public Monday, also identify two unnamed co-conspirators described as a New York nonprofit organization that focuses on infectious disease work and a doctor affiliated with an academic institution that received NIH funding.
“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,” Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a statement announcing the charges on Tuesday.
Attempts to contact Morens’ representatives for a response to the allegations were unsuccessful.
The former NIH official is facing five separate criminal counts, including conspiracy charges, destroying or altering records during federal investigations, and concealing or damaging official documents.
This legal action represents the most recent move by Republican President Donald Trump’s current administration concerning questions about how the coronavirus pandemic began, which devastated global communities starting in late 2019 during Trump’s initial presidency.
The World Health Organization along with the majority of scientific experts believe the virus most likely jumped from animals to humans naturally. While investigations have been limited due to insufficient information from China, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last year that a laboratory accident was the probable source.
A Republican-controlled Senate committee is currently investigating the pandemic’s beginnings, including demanding documents from the prestigious medical publication the Lancet.
Several Republican lawmakers have claimed that former NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci worked to silence theories suggesting COVID-19 escaped from a Chinese laboratory. Fauci has categorically rejected these accusations, stating before a House subcommittee in 2024 that he never attempted to shape research into the virus’s source.
Morens, who served as an advisor to Fauci, was summoned to provide testimony last year to the Republican-controlled COVID subcommittee, which obtained subpoenas for tens of thousands of his email communications, including correspondence with the NIAID director.
