2026年4月28日 / 美国东部时间下午2:09 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
华盛顿讯 美国司法部周二表示，美国国立过敏与传染病研究所前高级顾问因涉嫌在新冠疫情期间策划隐瞒联邦记录而面临指控。
78岁的戴维·莫伦斯博士本月早些时候被联邦大陪审团起诉，被控五项罪名，包括共谋罪、销毁联邦调查记录以及隐瞒记录。他已于周一首次在联邦治安法官面前出庭，并将于下周接受传讯。
莫伦斯于2006年至2022年间担任美国国立过敏与传染病研究所主任办公室高级顾问。安东尼·福奇博士领导该研究所近40年，先后为7位总统服务，并于2022年在时任总统乔·拜登政府期间退休。
检察官指控莫伦斯与两名身份不明、未被起诉的同谋者合作，通过隐瞒与疫情相关的联邦记录来欺骗美国政府。第一名同谋者被列为“同谋者1”，其担任一家总部位于纽约的非营利组织的总裁兼首席执行官，该组织在2014年获得了一项名为“了解蝙蝠冠状病毒出现的风险”的拨款。
检察官表示，中国武汉的武汉病毒研究所从该纽约组织获得了这项冠状病毒研究拨款的分拨款。第二名同谋者在起诉书中被描述为一名医生、科学家和教授，曾在获得联邦拨款的学术机构工作。
2024年，共和党领导的新冠疫情特别调查委员会公布的电子邮件显示，这家纽约组织是生态健康联盟，而同谋者1正是该组织总裁彼得·达扎克。
此次指控源于2020年4月至2022年12月期间，美国国立过敏与传染病研究所收到的多份《信息自由法》申请，包括司法观察和传统基金会在内的组织申请获取莫伦斯与该纽约受资助组织及其总裁之间的通信记录。
检察官表示，莫伦斯于2020年初开始与该公司总裁（即同谋者1）就当时新出现的冠状病毒进行沟通，并收到了有关该非营利组织获得的蝙蝠冠状病毒研究拨款的信息。在美国国立卫生研究院表示将审查疫情是否源于武汉病毒研究所实验室泄漏的指控后，该拨款于2020年4月被终止。
起诉书指控莫伦斯与两名同谋者使用他的个人Gmail账户交换有关新冠疫情、蝙蝠冠状病毒研究拨款以及索要该拨款和新冠疫情起源相关文件的电子邮件，以试图规避联邦公共记录法。
莫伦斯及其同谋者还 allegedly 使用他的Gmail账户分享美国国立卫生研究院关于新冠疫情的非公开信息，并向一名身份不明的美国国立过敏与传染病研究所高级官员传递“幕后”信息，根据起诉书内容，这名官员似乎就是福奇。
起诉书称，莫伦斯撰写了一篇医学期刊投稿，试图反驳新冠病毒源于实验室泄漏的说法，转而强调其自然起源的证据。美国司法部表示，此举旨在帮助这家纽约公司及其总裁。
检察官表示，莫伦斯还利用其在美国国立过敏与传染病研究所高级顾问的职位“做出有利于”该纽约组织及其负责人的官方行为，并收受了好处。
2020年6月，同谋者1 allegedly 向莫伦斯的住宅寄送了两瓶葡萄酒，并附言称：“这是我希望持续表达感谢的开始，感谢你在我对抗你的老板的老板、他的老板以及国会山上最终老板的战斗中提供的建议、支持和幕后小动作。”
起诉书还称，同谋者1向莫伦斯承诺了额外的礼物，例如在巴黎、华盛顿特区和纽约的米其林星级餐厅用餐。
国会共和党议员启动了对新冠疫情起源的调查，包括病毒从武汉实验室泄漏的理论，以及福奇对疫情的处理情况。福奇于2024年在共和党领导的众议院新冠疫情特别调查委员会作证14小时，并于当年晚些时候公开回答了问题。
莫伦斯也于2024年5月出席了该疫情调查委员会的听证会，期间他被追问有关其试图规避《信息自由法》规定的电子邮件内容。
福奇在2024年6月的证词中与对莫伦斯的调查划清界限，告诉议员们两人在美国国立卫生研究院园区内的不同办公楼办公。他表示莫伦斯并非他“研究所政策或其他实质性问题”的顾问。
福奇还承认莫伦斯的许多行为是错误的，违反了机构规定，并否认使用个人电子邮件处理公务。
众议院监督与政府改革委员会共和党领袖詹姆斯·科默称赞司法部对莫伦斯提起诉讼。
“我们当场抓住了莫伦斯博士，他在电子邮件中吹嘘‘FOIA女士’如何指导他如何隐藏记录和掩盖信息，”他在一份声明中说道。“我赞扬特朗普司法部采取行动，追究这名公职人员向美国民众隐瞒信息的责任。”
尽管福奇在新冠疫情最初几周经常与特朗普总统一同出席公开简报会，但两人的关系在福奇在公共卫生指导方针上与总统产生分歧后变得紧张。
在特朗普第二个任期的最初几天，他取消了福奇的安保团队。拜登在其总统任期结束前预先赦免了福奇，以防他成为特朗普的攻击目标。
Ex-adviser at Fauci’s NIAID indicted for allegedly attempting to hide records during COVID-19 pandemic
April 28, 2026 / 2:09 PM EDT / CBS News
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 Pandemic indicate that the New York-based organization is the EcoHealth Alliance and co-conspirator 1 is its president, Peter Daszak.
The charges stem from several Freedom of Information Act requests NIAID received between April 2020 and December 2022 from organizations including Judicial Watch and the Heritage Foundation that sought communications between Morens, the New York grant recipient and its president.
Prosecutors said that Morens started communicating with the company president, co-conspirator 1, in early 2020 about what was then the emerging coronavirus and received information about the bat coronavirus grant the nonprofit had been awarded. That grant was terminated in April 2020 after the National Institutes of Health said it was reviewing allegations that the pandemic was the result of a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The indictment alleges that Morens and the two co-conspirators used his personal Gmail account to exchange emails about COVID-19, the bat coronavirus grant, and requests for documents about the grant and COVID-19’s origins in an effort to evade federal public records laws.
Morens and his co-conspirators also allegedly used his Gmail account to share nonpublic information from the National Institutes of Health about COVID-19 and “back-channel” information to an unidentified senior NIAID official, which appears to be Fauci, according to the charging document.
The indictment claims that Morens authored a medical journal submission that sought to counter the claim that COVID-19 emerged from a lab and instead focused on evidence that it came from nature, which the Justice Department said was intended to benefit the New York-based company and its president.
Prosecutors said that Morens also used his position as a senior adviser at NIAID to “engage in official acts favorable” to the New York organization and its leader, and received gratuities.
In June 2020, co-conspirator 1 allegedly sent Morens two bottles of wine to his house and included a message stating, “This is the first of what I hope will be a continued series of expressions of gratitude for your advice, support, and behind-the-scenes shenanigans in my battle against your bosses boss, his boss, and the ultimate boss on the hill,” the indictment states.
The document also claims that co-conspirator 1 promised Morens additional gifts, such as a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris, Washington, D.C., and New York.
Republicans in Congress launched an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab, as well as Fauci’s handling of the pandemic. Fauci testified for 14 hours before the GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2024 and then answered questions publicly later that year.
Morens, too, appeared before the pandemic subcommittee in May 2024, where he was pressed about emails suggesting he was attempting to circumvent FOIA rules.
Fauci distanced himself from the investigation into Morens during his June 2024 testimony, telling lawmakers they worked in different buildings on the National Institutes of Health Campus. He said Morens was not an adviser to him on “institute policy or other substantive issues.”
Fauci also acknowledged that many of Morens’ actions were wrong and violated agency policy, and denied using his personal email to conduct official business.
Rep. James Comer, the Republican leader of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, lauded the Justice Department for pursuing charges against Morens.
“We caught Dr. Morens red-handed as he boasted in emails about how the ‘FOIA lady’ coached him on how to hide records and cover-up information,” he said in a statement. “I applaud the Trump Justice Department for taking action to hold this public official accountable for hiding information from the American people.”
While Fauci regularly appeared beside President Trump at public briefings in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between the two grew tense after Fauci differed with the president on public health guidance.
In the first days of Mr. Trump’s second term, he removed Fauci’s security detail. Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci before the end of his presidency in anticipation that he could be targeted by Mr. Trump.
