EXCLUSIVE — House Republicans issued a final warning on Thursday to the National Institutes of Health in an investigation into a top aide's use of private emails to avoid congressional and media scrutiny during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) wrote Acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak Thursday saying that the panel "will be forced to evaluate" the use of subpoena powers if the agency continues not to respond to its requests for information. The panel is seeking information on David Morens, former senior adviser to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director and COVID-19 policy leader Anthony Fauci, who reportedly intentionally used his personal email address to obscure information about the origins of the virus from the public.
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"Thus far, NIH has failed to produce a single document responding to our previous requests," Wenstrup wrote.
"Reports that a senior U.S. scientist purposefully engaged in activities to avoid transparency are serious matters that the Select Subcommittee views as undermining its investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and the United States’s response to the pandemic," Wenstrup wrote. "The mere suggestion of hiding government communications ever is extremely concerning and suggests dishonesty."
Emails uncovered by the Select Subcommittee reveal Morens informing his NIH colleagues in September 2021 that he prefers to use his personal Gmail address because his government account is "constantly" subjected to Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, requests. Morens also assured his colleagues that he would "delete anything [he doesn't] want to see in the New York Times."
The National Archives and Records Administration began its own investigation into Morens's record-keeping following the onset of the congressional investigation into the aide's conduct. NIH Records Officer Anthony Gibson responded to NARA's inquiries on Aug. 9, saying that NIH had conducted an internal investigation and found "no evidence that any federal records within their custody have been prematurely destroyed."
Select Subcommittee Democrats did not have a response to Wenstrup's letter, but they agreed that Morens's alleged activities were problematic.
"The willful evasion of public transparency requirements by any government official is unacceptable and a clear violation of the public’s trust, which NIH and NIAID have dutifully upheld for decades," a spokesperson for the minority told the Washington Examiner.
The Democratic spokesperson added, however, that the Republican accusation that Fauci was involved in instructing Morens to conceal NIAID records on the lab-leak theory is "part of their pattern of misrepresenting the facts" and is "purely speculation."
Morens has been senior adviser to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health since 1998, which became a full-time position in April 2022. He also worked in various positions in the field of respiratory diseases for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 1980s before transitioning to NIH.
Currently, Morens's LinkedIn profile says that he is "open to work," a hashtag designation on the social media platform typically denoting that the individual is seeking other employment opportunities.
Republicans on both the House Oversight and Energy and Commerce Committees have been escalating their investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, flexing the possible use of the subpoena power against multiple officials within the Department of Health and Human Services, including Tabak and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) last Thursday sent a letter to both Becerra and Tabak also threatening the use of subpoena powers if they failed to disclose information regarding the appointment of the new director of NIAID, Jeanne Marrazzo, who took office last week.
Voluntary transcribed interviews for Tabak and former NIH Director Francis Collins have been scheduled for Dec. 5 and 12, respectively. Former NIAID Acting Director Hugh Auchincloss is scheduled for an interview on Nov. 28.
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Tabak's office has until Oct. 12 to provide all documents and communications from within the NIH regarding the NARA investigation
NIAID has not responded to the Washington Examiner's request for comment.