Ex-Fauci adviser pleads guilty in COVID records concealment case
What's next: David Morens faces up to five years in prison at his Nov. 12 sentencing in Maryland.
David Morens, a former senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who worked under Anthony Fauci, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to evade public-records laws and conceal government documents tied to COVID-19 research grants. The plea came in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. Prosecutors said Morens and others shifted communications to his personal email account beginning in April 2020 because they expected Freedom of Information Act requests about pandemic-related grant research. Morens, 78, was indicted in April. Prosecutors said the conduct was tied to efforts around an NIH-canceled bat coronavirus grant involving a sub-award to the Wuhan lab. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 12.