Former National Institutes of Health head David Morens is accused of evading records requests related to the origins of the COVID pandemic and gains-of-function research
By Adam Kovac edited by Claire Cameron
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Join our community of science lovers!
The Justice Department has indicted a former senior National Institutes of Health (NIH) official who played a key role in the U.S. response to the COVID pandemic for allegedly trying to evade records requests related to the origins of the pandemic.
David Morens was charge with conspiracy against the United States and with willful concealment, destruction, alteration or falsification of documents. Morens was a senior aide to Anthony Fauci, former chief medical advisor to the president and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Fauci was the face of the U.S. response to the COVID pandemic and was initially praised by President Donald Trump, who was then in his first term. But Fauci has since been criticized for his role by several members of the Trump administration, including President and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Fauci is not accused of any wrongdoing in this indictment.
“These allegations represent a profound breach of trust at a time when the American people needed it most, at the height of a global pandemic,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. statement. “As the indictment alleges, Dr. Morens and his co-conspirators deliberately withheld information and falsified documents in an effort to suppress alternative theories regarding the origins of COVID-19. Government officials have a solemn duty to provide honest, well-founded facts and advice in the service of the public interest, and not to advance their own personal or ideological agendas.” Two unnamed people were named as co-conspirators in the indictment and have not been charged with any crime.
On supporting science journalism
If you enjoy this article, please consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribe. By purchasing a subscription, you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Timothy Belevez, an attorney who represents Morens, declined to comment.
Morens served as senior advisor to the director of NIAID until 2025. The indictment accuses Morens of using his position to defraud the United States after a grant to study the origins of the SAR-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID that had been awarded to one of the unnamed co-conspirators was rescinded. The DOJ alleges that Morens promised to reinstate the grant in an effort to counter the theory that the virus that caused COVID came from a Chinese laboratory rather than through animal-to-human transmission. Morens also allegedly evaded numerous records requests, including from journalists, related to the origins of the pandemic and gain-of-function research — an area of study that can involve deliberately making a pathogen more deadly in order to study what its effects are and how to combat it.
Morens had previously been mentioned on a White House website dedicated to promoting the theory that COVID came from a laboratory; this idea was rejected by many virologists. The website, created in the months after Trump returned to office, accused Morens of deliberately obstructing a Congressional investigation into a possible lab leak and of “probably” lying to Congress on multiple occasions.
The indictment also alleges that one of the two co-conspirators gave Morens two bottles of wine and promises of other things of value, such as meals at expensive restaurants.
Editor’s Note (04/29/26): This is a developing story and may be updated.
It’s time to defend science
If you enjoyed this article, I would like to ask for your support. Scientific American has been defending science and industry for 180 years, and we are currently experiencing perhaps the most critical moment in these two centuries of history.
I was a Scientific American subscriber since the age of 12, and it helped shape the way I see the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of respect for our vast and beautiful universe. I hope this is the case for you too.
If you subscribe to Scientific Americanyou help ensure our coverage centers on meaningful research and discoveries; that we have the resources to account for decisions that threaten laboratories across the United States; and that we support budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In exchange, you receive essential information, captivating podcastsbrilliant infographics, newsletters not to be missedunmissable videos, stimulating gamesand the best writings and reports from the scientific world. You can even give someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you will support us in this mission.
