David M. Morens, a longtime National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official who served as a senior adviser in NIAID’s Office of the Director from 2006 to 2022, has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in a federal case accusing him of conspiring to hide records tied to pandemic-era research grants and origins investigations.

The indictment charges Morens with conspiracy against the United States, destruction or falsification of government records, concealment of records, and aiding and abetting. According to the Justice Department, Morens and co-conspirators worked during the pandemic to evade federal transparency laws by using his personal Gmail account instead of official NIH systems after the National Institutes of Health terminated a bat coronavirus grant that included work with EcoHealth Alliance and a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The government alleges that hidden communications contained non-public NIH information, efforts to influence funding decisions, edits to letters for NIH leadership, and back-channel communications with a senior NIAID official. The Department of Justice states that Morens and his associates anticipated Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by moving discussions off official channels.

This case follows years of scrutiny from the House Oversight Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which previously uncovered evidence suggesting Morens intentionally concealed records about COVID-19 origins. Committee Chairman James Comer confirmed that the indictment aligns with findings from earlier investigations, including emails showing Morens used private email to avoid public records requests.

Morens, 78, of Chester, Maryland, is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.