Ex-senior adviser at NIAID indicted over COVID-19 records

Politics Ex-adviser at Fauci's NIAID indicted for allegedly attempting to hide records during COVID-19 pandemic By Melissa Quinn Melissa Quinn Senior Reporter, Politics Melissa Quinn is a senior reporter for CBSNews.com, where she covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts. Read Full Bio Melissa Quinn April 28, 2026 / 2:09 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is facing charges over an alleged scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Justice Department said Tuesday.Dr. David Morens, 78, was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month and charged with five counts, including conspiracy, destruction of records in federal investigations, and concealment of records. He made his initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge Monday and is set to be arraigned next week.Morens served as a senior adviser to NIAID's Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022. Dr. Anthony Fauci led the institute for nearly 40 years, serving under seven presidents, and retired in 2022 during then-President Joe Biden's administration.Prosecutors allege that Morens and two unnamed, unindicted co-conspirators worked together to defraud the U.S. by shielding federal records related to the pandemic from the public. The first co-conspirator, identified as "co-conspirator 1," served as the president and CEO of a New York-based nonprofit group that received a grant in 2014 titled "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence." The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, received a subaward from the New York organization on the coronavirus grant, prosecutors said. The second co-conspirator is described in the indictment as a physician, scientist and professor who worked for an academic institute that received federal grants.Emails released in 2024 by the Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pa...