Former Fauci Adviser David Morens Pleads Guilty in COVID-19 Records Case

Dr. David Morens, a former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) official and senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci plead guilty Tuesday to a federal conspiracy charge related to concealing records on COVID-19.

The Charge: Morens plead guilty to conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. He faces up to five years in prison and is set to be sentenced on Nov. 12 by US District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland. With his plea, Morens admitted to conspiring with two unnamed co-conspirators and others to "defraud the United States by hampering, hindering, impeding, or obstructing, by craft, trickery, deceit or dishonest means, the lawful and legitimate functions." This was done by utilizing his personal Gmail account to conduct government business with intentions to hide communications with co-conspirators from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests after the termination of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for research on bat coronaviruses.

Right-Hand Man: Outlets on the right like The Federalist (Right bias) and The New York Post (Right) tended to highlight more details surrounding both the plea and the alleged co-conspirators involved. The New York Post highlighted belief that "co-conspirator 1" is Dr. Peter Daszak, president of Manhattan-based non-profit EcoHealth Alliance, and that Morens pledged to help Daszak "counter the narrative that COVID-19 leaked from a lab in China." The Federalist called the development "a major step toward accountability" and referred to Morens as "Fauci's Right-Hand Man."

Origins Remain Unresolved: Outlets on the left like The Guardian (Left) and Associated Press (Lean Left) were more likely to highlight that the charges and indictment followed a House Republican probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both outlets also mentioned Fauci's appearance at a congressional hearing in July, where according to the Associated Press article he "repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination." The Guardian noted that "Covid's origins remain unresolved."

Related: The Insight: What We Learned From the Fauci Hearing

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