Aug 18 (Reuters) – A former adviser to infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents related to grant research funding and the COVID-19 pandemic.

David ‌Morens, who had worked under Fauci as a senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the pandemic, entered his plea to a conspiracy charge during a hearing in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The 78-year-old had been indicted in April on charges related to what prosecutors said was a scheme to thwart public records requests received by the agency beginning in April 2020 related to COVID-19 research grants.

He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced on November 12.

“By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so,” Timothy Belevetz, his lawyer, said in a statement.

The plea came after Fauci, who led the NIAID for 38 years and became the face of the U.S. pandemic ​response, appeared before a Senate panel last month and repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination as he accused Republican Senator Rand Paul, a longtime adversary from Kentucky, of pursuing an “unhinged” campaign to see him imprisoned.

COVID’s ⁠origins remain unresolved. The FBI said in 2023 that a leak from a Wuhan laboratory likely caused the pandemic, a claim China said had “no credibility whatsoever.” The CIA said in January 2025 a lab leak was likely, but with “low confidence,” while four other U.S. intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council believe the virus most likely emerged via natural transmission from some animal.

Prosecutors said that Morens’ plea related to the National Institutes of Health’s decision to cancel a research grant related to bat coronavirus, based on allegations that COVID-19 emerged from the Wuhan lab. The China-based lab had received a sub-award from the company that had received the grant.

Prosecutors said that Morens pledged to help restore the bat coronavirus grant and counter the narrative COVID-19 leaked from a lab.

Anticipating their communications would be sought through Freedom of Information Act requests, Morens and others agreed to correspond using Morens’ personal email account instead of his government one, prosecutors said.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)