by WorldTribune Staff, August 19, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

One of Covid czar Anthony Fauci’s top deputies during the pandemic pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal conspiracy charges in a scheme to avoid Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to EcoHealth Alliance.

The Justice Department brought the case against David Morens in April, accusing the former senior scientific adviser at the Fauci-led National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of committing conspiracy against the U.S., destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting.

In a 2021 email that was released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, 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.” Morens wrote in a separate email. “Plus i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.”

According to court documents, Morens directed one of the co-conspirators to keep messages off government phones and email servers, adding he hoped to get the person “uber funded” in the future. Through the relationship, Morens received wine and offers of future meals at high-end restaurants.

In communications released by the House committee, Morens wrote to EcoHealth President Peter Daszak: “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.”

Following the plea agreement, Morens’s attorney Tim Belevetz told The Hill on Tuesday that his client is taking “responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so.”

Morens faces up to five years in prison for conspiracy and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Fauci said during testimony before Congress in 2024 that Morens’s actions were “wrong” but claimed at the time that he did not participate in them.

The indictment alleged that Morens:

• Conspired with two others during the Covid pandemic to defraud and commit several offenses against the United States after NIH terminated a grant called Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence based on allegations that the Covid virus emerged from communist China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

• Conspired with others to restore the termination of the bat coronavirus grant and counter the narrative that Covid leaked from a lab.

• Agreed in writing to intentionally hide from public view their communications by corresponding using Morens’s personal Gmail account, rather than his official NIH email account.

• Received a gratuity in the form of wine for his “behind-the-scenes shenanigans,” and identified an official act that he could perform to “deserve” the gift, which was a scientific commentary in a prominent medical journal advocating that Covid had natural origins.

Freedom Rocks! Until It Is Gone

  Feds’ Covid coverup confirmed: Top Fauci official pleads guilty of conspiracy against U.S., WorldTribune.com