{"id":221301,"date":"2026-08-20T07:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/former-fauci-adviser-pleads-guilty-to-conspiring-to-conceal-covid-19-records-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T07:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:47:16","slug":"former-fauci-adviser-pleads-guilty-to-conspiring-to-conceal-covid-19-records-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/former-fauci-adviser-pleads-guilty-to-conspiring-to-conceal-covid-19-records-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Fauci adviser pleads guilty to conspiring to conceal Covid-19 records – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A former adviser to infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents related to \u200bgrant research funding and the Covid-19 pandemic.
David Morens, who had worked under Fauci \u200cas a senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the pandemic, entered his plea <\/a>to a conspiracy charge during a hearing in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The 78-year-old had been indicted<\/a> \u200bin April on charges related to what prosecutors said was a scheme to thwart \u200bpublic records requests received by the agency beginning in April 2020 related \u2060to Covid-19 research grants.
He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced \u200bon Nov. 12.
\u201cBy pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, \u200band he will continue to do so,\u201d 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, \u200bappeared before a Senate panel last month and repeatedly invoked<\/a> his right against self-incrimination as he \u200baccused Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a longtime adversary from Kentucky, of pursuing an \u201cunhinged\u201d campaign to see him \u200cimprisoned.
Covid\u2019s \u2060origins remain unresolved.
The FBI said in 2023 that a leak from a Wuhan laboratory likely caused the pandemic, a claim China said had \u201cno credibility whatsoever.\u201d The CIA said in January 2025 a lab leak was likely, but with \u201clow confidence,\u201d while four other U.S. intelligence agencies \u200band the National Intelligence \u200bCouncil believe the virus \u2060most likely emerged via natural transmission from some animal.
Prosecutors said that Morens\u2019 plea related to the National Institutes of Health\u2019s decision to \u200bcancel a research grant related to bat coronavirus, based on allegations that \u200bCovid-19 emerged \u2060from the Wuhan lab. The China-based lab had received a sub-award from the company that had received the grant.
Prosecutors said that Morens pledged to help restore the bat coronavirus grant and counter \u2060the \u200bnarrative Covid-19 leaked from a lab.
Anticipating their communications would \u200bbe sought through Freedom of Information Act requests, Morens and others agreed to correspond using Morens\u2019 personal email account \u200binstead of his government one, prosecutors said.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeA former adviser to infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents related to \u200bgrant research funding and the Covid-19 pandemic.David Morens, who had worked under Fauci \u200cas a senior official at the National Institute of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}