A government watchdog sent a letter to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week demanding the agency investigate alleged evasions of transparency laws by a top advisor for Anthony Fauci.
On Wednesday, the non-profit group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) demanded the HHS inspector general open a probe into Dr. David Morens, a senior advisor at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In May, a memo the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released suggested Morens inappropriately deleted records and colluded with agency officials to escape requests made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) law.
“I learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foia’d,” Morens wrote in one email, and referenced a “‘secret’ back channel” to communicate with Fauci in another.
“Dr. Morens took it upon himself to reach out to NIH/NIAID’s FOIA contacts and apparently devised methods for effectively shielding his communications from disclosure under FOIA,” wrote PPT Director Michael Chamberlain in a letter to the HHS inspector general. “If that were not enough, it appears as though Dr. Morens sought to rope others into this scheme, establishing a ‘secret back channel’ through which he and his colleagues could communicate for the explicit purpose of making their communications fall outside the scope of what is traditionally subject to disclosure under FOIA.”
When he testified on Capitol Hill last month, Morens laughed off lawmakers’ questions related to the allegations of ethical misconduct.
“I was
