Last week, the House subcommittee investigating the COVID pandemic announced that it would be looking into a senior scientific advisor at the NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) who admitted to using a personal email account to avoid FOIA requests and deleted some emails he sent during the pandemic, the New York Post reported.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic announced on Thursday that it was investigating Dr. David Morens, who served under former NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci, for possible violations of federal record-keeping laws after The Intercept published a series of emails that showed that Morens attempted to “evade accountability to the American people.”
According to the subcommittee, the emails show that Morens used a personal email account to skirt Freedom of Information Act requests, deleted federal records, and allegedly attempted to suppress the “lab leak” theory at the request of Dr. Fauci.
In a July 29, 2021 email obtained by The Intercept, Morens told reporter Jason Gale from Bloomberg that he was prohibited from discussing the origins of COVID “on the record,” but was permitted to discuss it so long as Dr. Fauci’s “fingerprints” weren’t on it.
The subcommittee also accuses Dr. Morens of “disparaging fellow scientists in his official capacity.”
In a September 7, 2021 email exchange, EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak complained to Dr. Moran about The Intercept’s reporting on the lab leak theory and gain-of-function research. In his reply, Morens suggested that Daszak shouldn’t “rule out suing these assholes for slander.”
Morens also told a colleague to use his Gmail account to communicate with him since his email account with the NIH “is FOIA’d constantly.” He promised the colleague that he would “delete anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times.”
Subcommittee Chair Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) has requested all communications from Morens’ personal email and cellphone and has asked that Morens appear for a transcribed interview with the committee.
