David Morens, the longtime senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States.
Morens, 78, entered the plea in federal court in Maryland under an agreement with prosecutors.
The charges stem from Morens’ role in a scheme to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Department of Justice, Morens and his co-conspirators used his personal Gmail account to hide communications about restoring NIH funding to EcoHealth Alliance’s controversial bat coronavirus grant, the same grant tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology that was terminated over lab-leak concerns.
Additionally, Morens co-authored papers that dismissed the lab-leak theory as “thoroughly discredited” and promoted the natural-origin narrative while protecting EcoHealth Alliance and its Chinese partners.
According to the DOJ announcement of the guilty plea:
“Morens is facing up to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district judge determines sentencing after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.”
As The Gateway Pundit has previously reported, Morens worked to undermine Trump’s 2020 ban on gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called it “a profound abuse of trust” at the height of the pandemic.
The original April indictment charged him with five counts, including conspiracy against the United States, destruction or falsification of records in federal investigations, and concealment or mutilation of records.
Morens had previously testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2024, where he was questioned about the emails. Fauci distanced himself, claiming Morens was not an adviser on substantive policy matters.
The taxpayer watchdog group White Coat Waste Project (WCW), which first exposed NIH’s gain-of-function funding in Wuhan and the infamous “Beaglegate” dog experiments, previously warned that Morens was not acting alone.
Responding to news of the guilty plea, the founder of White Coat Waste, Anthony Bellotti, told The Gateway Pundit:
“In April 2020, to expose Fauci’s funding for gain-of-function at the Wuhan lab — and ever since we’ve led the campaign to hold Fauci and his cronies accountable for abusing animals and their COVID cover-up. David Morens deserves the maximum penalty for conspiring to defraud taxpayers and for hiding what really happened in Wuhan.”
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