Ex-Fauci adviser pleads guilty to plotting to conceal COVID-19 research records
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Former Fauci Advisor Admits Guilt in Scheme to Hide Pandemic-Origin Research Files
Tyunews.com – In Greenbelt, Maryland, Dr. David Morens — a longtime senior consultant to infectious-disease authority Dr. Anthony Fauci — entered a guilty plea on Tuesday. He acknowledged a plot to suppress federal documentation tied to investigations into how the lethal COVID-19 pandemic began.
Sentencing and Charges
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis will hand down the sentence on November 12 in Greenbelt. Morens admitted to conspiring to defraud the federal government, a felony carrying up to five years behind bars.
The Justice Department contends that while serving at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Morens deliberately routed communications through a personal email account to sidestep public-records statutes. According to the government, he either hid or eliminated files documenting conversations about pandemic-research funding, including a bid to resurrect a disputed coronavirus grant.
Congressional Backdrop
The indictment grew out of a House Republican inquiry examining the pandemic’s origins. That investigation examined Morens’ email traffic and concluded he had purposefully buried records. During sworn congressional testimony, however, Morens rejected the claim that he had sought to dodge federal transparency requirements by relying on a private inbox.
The broader political drama intensified in July, when Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination during a congressional session addressing his pandemic-era decisions. Most recently, Fauci turned down an invitation to voluntarily testify before a second Senate committee after majority Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee voted along party lines to cite him for contempt of Congress.
Defense Statement
“By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so,” said Tim Belevetz, Morens’ defense attorney, in a statement following the plea hearing.
Fauci himself was not named as a defendant in the case against Morens, who is 78 years old and resides in Chester, Maryland.
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