Overview
- David M. Morens, 78, was indicted Tuesday on conspiracy and records-falsification charges after prosecutors said he used a personal Gmail account to evade Freedom of Information Act searches.
- The alleged scheme centers on the NIH-funded grant titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,” which included a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and was terminated in 2020.
- Prosecutors say Morens and two uncharged collaborators agreed in writing to move discussions off NIH systems, exchanged non-public NIH information, and even drafted letters and back-channeled updates to an unnamed “Senior NIAID Official 1.”
- The indictment also alleges illegal gratuities, including wine and offers of meals at top restaurants, tied to an effort to publish commentary that argued the pandemic began through natural spillover.
- If convicted, Morens faces potential decades in prison, in a case that builds on House investigations which surfaced emails in which he described learning how to “make emails disappear.”