A former adviser to infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty on Tuesday (August 18, 2026) to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents related to grant research funding and the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID’s origins remain unresolved. The China-based lab had received a sub-award from the company that had received the grant. The 78-year-old had been indicted in April on charges related to what prosecutors said was a scheme to thwart public records requests received by the agency beginning in April 2020 related to COVID-19 research grants. The FBI said in 2023 that a leak from a Wuhan laboratory likely caused the pandemic, a claim China said had “no credibility whatsoever. Morens’ plea related to the National Institutes of Health’s decision to cancel a research grant related to bat coronavirus, based on allegations that COVID-19 emerged from the Wuhan lab. Morens pledged to help restore the bat coronavirus grant and counter the narrative COVID-19 leaked from a lab.
Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so,” Timothy Belevetz, his lawyer, said in a statement. The plea came after Fauci, who led the NIAID for 38 years and became the face of the U.S. pandemic response, appeared before a Senate panel last month and repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination as he accused Republican Senator Rand Paul, a longtime adversary from Kentucky, of pursuing an “unhinged” campaign to see him imprisoned. The CIA said in January 2025 a lab leak was likely, but with “low confidence,” while four other U.S. intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council believe the virus most likely emerged via natural transmission from some animal. Prosecutors said that Mr.
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Anticipating their communications would be sought through Freedom of Information Act requests, Mr. Morens and others agreed to correspond using Mr. David Morens is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. Morens pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the US government, a felony punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years. Last Friday, Fauci declined a request to appear voluntarily before a second Senate panel after majority Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee voted along partisan lines to hold him in contempt of Congress.
12 by US District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland. Earlier reporting noted: In July, Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a congressional hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Morens’ personal email account instead of his government one, prosecutors said. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so,” defense attorney Tim Belevetz said in a statement after the plea hearing.
Earlier reporting noted: Dr. Earlier reporting noted: “By pleading guilty today, Dr.
