Senators Claim Long-Time Fauci Adviser Violated Ban on Using Personal Email for Official NIH Business

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy speaks during the United States Conference of Mayors 91st Winter Meeting in Washington on Jan. 18, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Five Republican senators led by Kansas’ Roger Marshall want U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to investigate a key adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci for using his personal email to conduct official National Institutes of Health (NIH) business concerning the Coronavirus and in violation of long-standing federal laws and policies.

In a July 17 letter, Mr. Marshall cited a Sept. 9, 2021, message sent on U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Captain David Morens’s personal email and addressed to “Peter and colleagues“ as evidence that he ”deliberately avoided compliance with federal laws by using his personal email to conduct official government business.”

In that email, Mr. Morens wrote, “As you know, I try to always communicate on Gmail because my NIH email is FOIA'd constantly. Yesterday my Gmail was hacked, probably by these [expletive], and until IT can get it fixed I may have to occasionally email from my NIH account. IT spent a couple hours today but couldn’t fix it. Stuff sent to my Gmail gets to my phone, but not my NIH computer. Don’t worry, just send to any of my addresses and I will delete anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times.”

Mr. Morens was for many years assigned as an adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022, and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser from 2021 to 2022. A search of the federal employee salary database of openthebooks.org and based on U.S. Office of Personnel Management data indicates Morens receives an annual salary as a “Medical Officer” of $176,300.

Joining Mr. Marshall in signing the letter to Dr. Murthy were Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Joni Ernst of Iowa, and Mike Lee of Utah. The 2021 email cited by the senators in their letter to the surgeon general was first reported by The Intercept after it was obtained in June by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which is chaired by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio).

A copy of the senators’ letter was obtained by The Epoch Times.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) speaks with reporters during a press conference in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 11, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

Mr. Marshall and his Senate colleagues said the individuals Mr. Morens addressed in the 2021 email “were not USPHS Commissioned Corps or NIH staff, but instead included persons with whom Captain Morens should not have been directly seeking counsel from for official NIH business.

“Email recipients included NIH grantees like [Scripps Research Institute virologist] Kristian Andersen, who is currently under scrutiny for inappropriate private communications with other NIH leadership in potential violation of federal laws and regulations, and who may have misled the public and the U.S. Intelligence Committee about the COVID-19 origins,” the senators wrote.

Also among those receiving Mr. Morens’s emails was Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, the New York-based medical nonprofit that channeled U.S. tax dollars awarded by NIH to China’s Wuhan Institute for Virology (WIV). Many U.S. officials and medical experts believe the Coronavirus that has killed more than 1 million Americans since January 2020 originated at the WIV.

After nearly two years of mounting criticism in Congress and multiple media reports pointing to the WIR as the source of the malady, President Joe Biden’s administration recently ordered that no U.S tax dollars should be given to the Chinese facility.

Security personnel stand outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on Feb. 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Mr. Andersen and a third recipient of the Morens email, Dr. Robert Garry of Tulane University School of Medicine, were grilled during the July 13 hearing of the Wenstrup-led panel concerning a 2020 paper they helped write that argued against the WIR as the source of the Coronavirus.

The working relationship between Mr. Morens and Mr. Daszak extends back at least 15 years, according to the senators.

“Relationships between David Morens and each individual identified in his private email communications must be closely examined. For example, Captain Morens co-authored published research articles with Peter Daszak starting at least 15 years ago. Peter Daszak was one of Captain Morens’s primary private email recipients and is also the NIH grant recipient who shared his NIH grant with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China to collect and conduct risky research on dangerous bat coronavirus pathogens before the COVID-19 pandemic,” the senators told Dr. Murthy.

“Peter Daszak was non-compliant with NIH grant policies throughout that award, resulting in NIH suspension of the grant for more than two years and termination of the WIV sub-award last year. While other public health officials worked continuously during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Captain Morens devoted his time to two research collaborations with Peter Daszak about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with one publishing as early as Feb. 26, 2020, claiming that ‘epidemiologic information implicates a bat-origin virus infecting unidentified animal species sold in China’s live-animal markets’ and ’did not escape from a jar,'” the senators continued.

The senators also noted that foreign nationals and journalists were among the recipients of private emails from Mr. Morens.

“Some of Captain Morens’s email recipients involved direct consultations with foreign nationals, which may be in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). FACA provides the legal foundation defining how federal advisory committees operate, with emphasis on open meetings and reporting,” the senators said.

“Captain Morens also communicated directly with journalists and in knowing violation of NIH policies as evidenced when the Captain emailed a Bloomberg journalist and offered to speak on background before that journalist approached NIH for an official meeting request. Captain Morens acknowledged that ‘[i]n the US government, we all have to get approval from [Department of Health Human Services] HHS or the White House to speak to the press,’” the senators wrote.

In addition, the senators told the surgeon general that Mr. Morens’s “ongoing use of his private email compromises NIH cyber security systems and safeguards,” and they said his “deliberate use of his personal email for official government business may be in violation of 18 U.S.C.§ 2071 for unlawful removal of official government records.

“Government email communications may be considered official U.S. government records. The statute provides that ‘whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes ... or attempts to do so ... shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both,’ and continues with, ‘whoever, having the custody of any such record...shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both ...’”

A spokesman for the HHS did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment. Both NIH and USPHS are part of HHS.

In addition to making Mr. Morens available for an on-the-record interview, the senators asked for copies of “all private email correspondence in which Captain Morens participated in circumvention of the Freedom of Information Act.”