David Morens, a former adviser to Anthony Fauci, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a conspiracy charge. The charge relates to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents linked to grant research funding and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Morens, 78, who served as a senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid) during the pandemic, entered his plea in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. He had been indicted in April on charges prosecutors said were connected to a scheme to obstruct public records requests regarding Covid-19 research grants, which began in April 2020.
Prosecutors stated that Mr Morens' plea concerned the National Institutes of Health's decision to cancel a research grant related to bat coronavirus, following allegations that Covid-19 originated from the Wuhan lab. The China-based lab had received a sub-award from the company that was granted the funding. Prosecutors also said Mr Morens pledged to help restore the bat coronavirus grant and counter the narrative that Covid-19 leaked from a lab.
Mr Morens and others reportedly agreed to use his personal email account for correspondence, rather than his government account, in anticipation of Freedom of Information Act requests. He faces a potential sentence of up to five years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for 12 November.