David Morens guilty plea: Fauci's former NIH adviser admitted to routing COVID-19 research records through personal Gmail to evade FOIA, and to authoring a peer-reviewed scientific opinion on COVID-19 origins in exchange for wine -- the first criminal conviction in the federal pandemic transparency investigation.

As an investigation into Anthony Fauci's COVID-19 conspiracies continues, one of his former aides, David Morens, is also being scrutinized. On Wednesday, August 19, Kash Patel accused Morens of pleading guilty to conspiracy in a scheme only to "avoid FOIA requests and the Federal Records Act connected to COVID-19 research grants".

David Morens spent years advising one of the biggest names in America's COVID-19 response. Now the Maryland man has admitted conspiring to keep some of his pandemic-era communications out of public view.

David Morens, 78, faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to evade federal public record laws