PPT Applauds Indictment of Dr. David Morens, Validating 2024 Complaint

Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) today welcomed the Department of Justice’s indictment of Dr. David Morens, a former senior advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci, on multiple felony charges related to the concealment and destruction of federal records during investigations into the origins of COVID-19.

The indictment, unsealed yesterday in Maryland federal court, directly addresses the very conduct PPT highlighted in its formal June 4, 2024, complaint to the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General. In that filing, PPT presented extensive documentary evidence indicating that Morens and other National Institute of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH/NIAID) officials engaged in a deliberate and coordinated effort to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests between April 2020 and at least December 2021.

As PPT established in its complaint, emails published by the House Select Subcommittee on the COVID-19 Pandemic showed that Morens directed colleagues to use his personal Gmail accounts for official business, claimed IT helped make his personal account and phone calls “safe from FOIA,” coordinated with NIH’s own FOIA office to learn how to “make emails disappear,” and bragged about deleting records – all while the American people were demanding transparency about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of taxpayer funds.

Morens is now charged with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting. The indictment further alleges two unnamed co-conspirators participated in the scheme to evade FOIA and Federal Records Act obligations during probes into pandemic-related research grants, including deliberately misspelling key terms to thwart searches.

“The conduct alleged in this indictment represents egregious violations of the public’s trust in its government, which is why we filed a complaint when the information first came out,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain said. “This behavior clearly violates the standards all public servants should adhere to and denies the American people their right to know what their government is doing. We hope this is the beginning of efforts to address the misconduct that appeared to be so rampant among public health officials during the pandemic.”

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