Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have just issued a subpoena that relates to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The subpoena comes from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which is chaired by U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH).
The committee has subpoenaed Lawrence Tabak, the acting director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The subpoena is in relation to the committee's investigation of David Morens, one of Fauci's top aides. Morens currently is a senior scientific advisor at the NIAID.
Wenstrup and his committee, among other things, are currently investigating an allegation that Morens covered up key documentation relating to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Washington Examiner reports:
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic began investigating Morens in June when the committee uncovered emails documenting that Morens utilized his personal email account to conduct NIH business to avoid Freedom of Information Act requests. Morens also wrote to his colleagues in September 2021 that he would "delete anything [he did not] want to see in the New York Times."
The committee says that, in the emails, Morens "admitted to this potential evasion of federal record-keeping laws."
According to the committee, the emails also show that Morens "threw cold water on the COVID-19 lab leak theory to protect his boss, Dr. Fauci, noting that 'Tony doesn’t want his fingerprints on origin stories.'"
This looks a lot like a cover-up, and this is what the committee is investigating.
It is that the NIH has not been cooperating with the committee's investigation.
The committee reports:
NIH recently conducted an internal investigation into this potential federal records violation but has refused to share relevant findings with the American people. Today’s subpoena compels the production of any information that the NIH has so far declined to disclose.
According to the Examiner, Wenstrup says that the "NIH did not respond to the Subcommittee's letter dated Sept. 15 and only provided two pages of responsive content to the request for all communication records regarding the NIH's internal investigation into Morens."
Now, the committee will see if it can get better results with the subpoena.
In a statement in conjunction with the subpoena, Wenstrup said:
Any government official who deletes federal records and purposefully sidesteps accountability to the American people must be thoroughly investigated. We have evidence that Dr. David Morens admitted he would ‘delete anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times’ and ‘try to always communicate on gmail because my NIH email is FOIA’d constantly’ when speaking with others about federal COVID-19 documents. This blatant disregard for the law during the COVID-19 pandemic is extremely concerning.
