The senior scientific adviser to then-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci bragged about helping Fauci evade the Freedom of Information Act by using Fauci's private email address or just handing him documents in person, according to newly disclosed emails.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic published the evidence ahead of a hearing with that adviser, David Morens, related to his own communications in which Morens admits to intentionally evading FOIA by using a personal Gmail address.
Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, accused Morens of obstructing the panel's investigation in a subpoena earlier this month. Originally scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, the hearing has been pushed back to 3:30 p.m.
The 35-page report on Morens includes previously unreleased emails.
An April 21, 2021 email shows Morens contacted EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, whom Morens has described as his "best friend" and a U.S. taxpayer conduit for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as well as Boston University and New England Biolabs researchers.
The subject line references "CoV research in China, GoF, etc.," referring to EcoHealth-facilitated coronavirus research at WIV that could make a virus more transmissible or dangerous. The National Institutes of Health recently admitted it funded gain-of-function research under that definition but not a stricter regulatory definition.
"PS, i forgot to say there is no worry about FOIAs," Morens wrote. "I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could get him in trouble."
A May 13, 2021 email to the same recipients referred to "our 'secret' back channel" by which Morens connected Fauci to a journalist named "Arthur," apparently to discuss the feds' preferred narrative that SARS-CoV-2 emerged naturally rather than via lab leak. The email cited an article on the message board Virological.
Gerald Keusch, associate director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory Institute at BU, emailed Daszak Oct. 25, 2021 to relay a phone conversation with "David," who is "concerned about the privacy of text" and email sent and received on his "government phone" because they "could be FOIA'able."
"Tony has told him not to be in touch with you and EHA for the time being," Keusch wrote. Morens relayed that Daszak should get his story straight on EcoHealth's claim that NIH locked it out of the system when it tried to file its year-five progress report that disclosed an arguable gain-of-function experiment.
Earlier in the day, Morens told Daszak "i will be meeting with Tony about this later on." The subject line of the thread was "Draft response to Michael Lauer," deputy director for extramural research at NIH.
Morens also told Daszak that Fauci and then-NIH Director Francis Collins are "trying to protect you, which also protects their own reputations," apparently meaning against allegations that U.S. tax dollars passed through EcoHealth funded research that may have led to SARS-CoV-2's emergence.
The subcommittee said it found emails that revealed "likely illegal" practices, including an April 2020 email in which Morens shared a "new NIAID implementation plan" with Daszak and an August 2020 email in which Daszak mentioned a "kick-back" to Morens after NIH awarded $7.5 million to EcoHealth.
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