It's too bad for David Morens that he didn't get one of those blanket pardons that President Joe Biden handed out to his former colleague, Anthony Fauci. Morens, a former senior advisor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has pleaded guilty to taking part in a scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has pleaded guilty to a charge stemming from a scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://t.co/kZBvYl9RPJ
— CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil (@CBSEveningNews) August 18, 2026
No kidding … https://t.co/qcsbQ0ZX5f
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 19, 2026
Melissa Quinn reports for CBS News:
A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has pleaded guilty to a charge stemming from a scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under a deal reached with federal prosecutors in Maryland, David Morens, 78, agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. He faces up to five years in prison.
Morens, a senior adviser at NIAID's Office of the Director from 2006 to 2022, was indicted in April and charged with five counts for what prosecutors said at the time was his role in a scheme to defraud the U.S. by shielding federal records related to the COVID-19 pandemic from the public.
…
Prosecutors said Morens worked with two co-conspirators. The first, "co-conspirator 1," served as the president and CEO of a New York-based nonprofit 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 group on the coronavirus grant, prosecutors said, though the National Institutes of Health terminated the award in April 2020 following allegations that COVID-19 emerged from the lab. The NIAID is part of the NIH.
The second co-conspirator was described in charging documents as a physician, scientist and professor who worked for an academic institute that received federal grants.
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CBS News further reports that emails made public by the Republican-led Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic indicate that the New York-based nonprofit is — gasp! — the EcoHealth Alliance, and co-conspirator 1 is its president, Peter Daszak.
Fauci’s right hand man? You forgot to mention that as a detail. #Covid
— Linda (@HonestAlways2) August 19, 2026
Once again, conspiracy theorists are correct and the mainstream media is wrong. Fuck CBS.
— Val Merdeaux (@FedUpInTheMid) August 19, 2026
So the MSM lied again during the COVID time?
— FedupCitizen (@FedupCitiz9n) August 19, 2026
Gee, another conspiracy turned out to be true. What's the score these days? 183-0?
We all knew this, but it only took them six years to figure it out.
— Mona Losh (@LoshMona) August 19, 2026
The difference between conspiracy theory and reality: about 6 months. Or in this case, 6 years.
— ZooTotWill (@Zoo_Tot01) August 19, 2026
Now, do some ACTUAL journalism, and connect the dots to Fauci and China...
— AmericanDawn (@AmericanDawn16) August 19, 2026
I’m more amazed that CBS actually reported this.
— Josh’s News, Memes, Photography, & Stuff (@joshbottweet) August 19, 2026
The media displayed a stunning lack of curiosity during Covid. These type of government employees are allowed to flourish because of poor media exposure.
— michael mclean (@michaelmclean57) August 19, 2026
Oops. And we’re really sorry for the way CBS handled everything during the pandemic. Left that part out.
— Ketoman319 (@kwood319) August 19, 2026
Reporting truth when you have no choice doesn’t make you heroes.
— RevFitz (@RevFitz47) August 19, 2026
It makes you worse frauds because you DIDN’T when it mattered.
May you go out of business and all your people end up begging in the streets.
Holy shit, CBS, what happened? Aren’t your liberal friends gonna destroy you for actually reporting the truth?
— Nesbit (@snagledude420) August 19, 2026
We said this all along and were called “conspiracy theorists”
— RedTXTrish (@RedTX2024) August 19, 2026
Autopen needs to be revoked and the head of the snake indicted.
Realistically, nothing is going to happen to this guy either, let alone Fauci. He'll go to his grave pleading the Fifth.
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