A former senior adviser to infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty Tuesday to plotting to conceal federal records related to research on the origins of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. David Morens is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. Morens pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the US government, a felony punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years.
12 by US District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“By pleading guilty today, Dr. Last Friday, Fauci declined a request to appear voluntarily before a second Senate panel after majority Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee voted along partisan lines to hold him in contempt of Congress. In July, Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a congressional hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so,” defense attorney Tim Belevetz said in a statement after the plea hearing.
