Congress questioned National Institutes of Health (NIH) official David Morens on Wednesday over his efforts to dodge inquiries about COVID-19's origins.
The Details: A memo from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic accuses Morens of "undermining the operations of the U.S. government, unlawfully deleting federal COVID-19 records, using a personal email to avoid the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and repeatedly acting unbecoming of a federal employee." It cites emails in which Morens described the ability to "make emails disappear" and being "smart enough to know to never have smoking guns."
Key Quotes: “It is not anti-science to hold you accountable,” Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA) told Morens on Wednesday. “I was not aware that anything I deleted like emails was a federal record,” Morens said.
For Context: Morens was a top adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. His emails also include discussions of cover-ups with Peter Daszak, president of the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, which was conducting coronavirus research at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) when the pandemic began. In the past week, the U.S. halted funding to Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance, saying he failed to properly report on potential high-risk research. EcoHealth Alliance's coronavirus research at WIV is central to the COVID-19 lab leak theory.
How the Media Covered It: Sources across the spectrum framed Morens negatively. Right-rated outlets highlighted the news more prominently.
A Fauci adviser deleted emails. Congress demanded to know why.
David Morens had a very bad day.
At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, the longtime National Institutes of Health official encouraged colleagues to evade federal records requirements, claiming that shifting sensitive covid conversations to personal email and deleting messages would protect his high-profile former boss Anthony S. Fauci and others from unwanted scrutiny.
It was spectacularly bad — and wrong — advice. And it brought the wrath of Congress down on Morens yesterday.
Did NIH officials hide COVID-19 records?
The House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a 35-page memo presenting what they say is overwhelming evidence that David Morens, a top adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health, deleted records critical to uncovering the origins of COVID-19.
The memo claims Morens unlawfully deleted emails and used a “secret back channel” to evade transparency.
NIH adviser David Morens can’t recall if he deleted COVID records, laughs off Fauci FOIA evasions
A top adviser at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) deleted records critical to uncovering the origins of COVID-19 — and used a “secret back channel” to help Dr. Anthony Fauci and a federal grantee that funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, evade transparency.