Morens, 79, pleaded guilty to one count in exchange for prosecutors dropping four other charges. He was a senior adviser to Fauci at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 2006 to late 2022.
Morens Used Personal Email to Evade Federal Records Law
Morens turned to his personal email account after the COVID-19 pandemic began with the express purpose of avoiding requests for records made under the Freedom of Information Act, which gives people the ability to request emails and other records, according to the plea agreement.In April 2020, President Donald Trump said he was aware that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were funding research in Wuhan, China, that some believed resulted in the pandemic, and indicated the funding would stop. The agency then sent a letter to EcoHealth Alliance, an organization that was funneling government funds to a lab in Wuhan. The NIH said that it was reviewing allegations that the lab released the virus responsible for the pandemic.
Morens began corresponding with Peter Daszak, head of the EcoHealth Alliance, saying that Fauci was aware of the development and that there were efforts to resolve the situation “with minimal damage” to Daszak, colleagues, and the government. Morens said that he would use a personal email account due to Freedom of Information Act requests, and did so to create and transfer federal records pertaining to his official responsibilities, the agreement stated.
Morens also helped Daszak compose a response to the NIH inquiry.
“Let’s win this anti science battle, get you refunded and uber funded, then settle scores and kick some ass,” Morens wrote in one missive to Daszak.
Daszak later sent Morens two bottles of wine in gratitude, and said that he might take him to a Michelin-starred restaurant in the future.
Influence on Origins Discussion
After the first COVID-19 cases appeared in China in late 2019, scientists began debating whether the virus came from nature or a lab. Fauci, Morens, and others knew that their agency had funded research in the Wuhan lab, and that the lab had conducted risky experiments in the past, according to emails made public by journalists and lawmakers.Morens coauthored a 2020 paper called “The Origin of COVID-19 and Why It Matters.” The paper said that COVID-19 was “a natural event” and that “theories about a hypothetical man-made origin … have been thoroughly discredited by multiple coronavirus experts.”
The paper cited three other papers—the one Fauci worked on, another coauthored by Daszak and scientists in Wuhan that has since been retracted, and a third written by a Chinese scientist and Australian professor Edward Holmes, a coauthor of the first paper.
Morens submitted the Origin paper with the intention of benefiting Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance, as he acknowledged in his guilty plea.
Morens Took Responsibility: Lawyer
Morens could have fought the charges but chose to admit guilt, according to his lawyer.“By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so,” Timothy Belevetz, the attorney, told news outlets in a statement.
Morens had written in a 2025 email to Daszak and others that he spent hours preparing with a lawyer to appear before a congressional committee.
“He says I should be prepared to be hit with criminal charges … and possible jail time for using my Gmail for supposed government business,” he wrote at the time.
Fauci Referenced in Filings
Fauci, 85, was referenced in multiple exchanges that prosecutors included in court filings.Under the marker “Senior NIAID Official 1,” Fauci was mentioned in emails from Morens, including the April 25, 2020, email that said Fauci was aware of the move to terminate the grant to EcoHealth.
In February 2021 emails with the subject line “Briefing [Fauci],” Morens said that he had learned from the top Freedom of Information Act government official “how to make emails disappear” after a request came in, but before the formal search began to fill the request.
“So I think we are all safe,” he wrote. “Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.”
Daszak wrote on multiple occasions in 2021 asking Morens to pass along information to Fauci, according to the plea agreement. In April 2021, Morens said that it was important to speak “off the record” because of Freedom of Information Act requests.
“Its [sic] most important that [Fauci] not have anything on the record that could come back to bite,” he said.
Morens said in other emails not referenced in the filings that Fauci had instructed him not to discuss the origins of COVID-19 on the record, but in July 2021 said he should talk to an outlet on the record.
In another email, Morens told Daszak that Fauci and then-National Institutes of Health head Dr. Francis Collins “are trying to protect you, which also protects, their own reputations.”
Fauci disavowed Morens during an appearance before Congress in 2024.
More Charges Coming?
Fauci received a preemptive pardon from then-President Joe Biden in early 2025, covering actions from Jan. 1, 2014, to Jan. 19, 2025.Court filings, in addition to identifying Daszak as a co-conspirator of Morens, also identify Dr. Gerald Keusch, a retired Boston University professor, as a co-conspirator.
The plea agreement also stated that Morens conspired with others who were not identified to violate federal law.
Daszak, who is no longer with EcoHealth Alliance, and Keusch could not be reached for comment.
FBI Director Kash Patel in an Aug. 18 post on X highlighted Morens’s guilty plea.
“This FBI investigation remains ongoing,” Patel wrote. “No one is above the law.”