Lawrence Tabak (Credit: Screenshot/Rumble/GOP Oversight)
Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak testified on Thursday that a former aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci allegedly violated the agency’s public records policy by disposing of certain emails.
Fauci’s senior advisor at the NIH Dr. David Morens allegedly intentionally obstructed the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic’s investigations into the origins of COVID-19 to protect his boss. Tabak told Republican House Oversight Chair James Comer in response to his questioning during a hearing that Morens allegedly violated NIH policy by getting rid of emails following public records requests.
“Dr. David Morens, a senior advisor to Fauci for decades, wrote in an email to Dr. Daszak, ‘I learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d, but before the search starts. So I think we are all safe. Plus I deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to Gmail.’ Is that consistent with NIH document retention policies?” Comer asked, to which Tabak answered that it’s not.
EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak allegedly misled the federal government to receive grants that funded virus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where some suspect the COVID-19 pandemic originated.
“Does the NIH FOIA office teach employees how to avoid transparency?” Comer followed up.
“I certainly hope not,” Tabak said. (Read more: The Daily Caller, 5/17/2024) (Archive)
May 22, 2024 – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter to the Department of Justice, urging them to open a formal investigation into Dr. David Morens for the alleged “improper concealment and intentional destruction of records.”
Morens, a former top aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci and current Senior Advisor to the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is accused of engaging in corrupt behavior to skirt the rules on various issues, the least of which involved investigations from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. It is believed that Morens engaged in a cover-up and destroyed vital records and communications related to the investigation.
“I write to urge the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to open an investigation into the alleged improper concealment and intentional destruction of records by Dr. David Morens, Senior Advisor to the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH),” Paul wrote in his letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Additionally, I request you investigate allegations that employees within NIH’s FOIA office may have conspired with Dr. Morens to evade public records retention laws.”
In the letter, Paul cited a statute that states that any person who “‘willfully and unlawfully’ conceals, removes, or destroys a federal record can be fined and imprisoned for up to three years.” Furthermore, Paul highlighted that this applied to anyone who tries to “conceal, remove, or destroy a federal record.”
Additionally, Morens is suspected of using a personal email account in lieu of an authorized government account so he could discuss matters related to the pandemic and, as the Washington Examiner previously reported, avoid any scrutiny and accountability through Freedom of Information Act requests. (Read more: Washington Examiner, 5/22/2024)