Fauci Aide Charged
Plus: A dicey FISA reauthorization, kingly quips about burning down the White House, the world's narrowest tax breaks, and more...
Former Fauci aide charged. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they'd charged David Morens, a former adviser to Anthony Fauci, with evading federal transparency laws while he worked behind the scenes to reinstate funding for risky coronavirus research in the midst of the pandemic.
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In a number of almost comically blunt emails that involved debates about the origins of COVID-19, Morens instructed his correspondents to communicate with him via his private Gmail account to avoid Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and said he could provide information to Fauci via private channels.
Senior advisor to Anthony Fauci finally charged for concealing federal records following a criminal referral from former House COVID Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup.
"I can either send stuff to Tony on his private Gmail [sic], or hand it to him at work or at his house,"… https://t.co/upwvBonbSo
— Alina Chan (@Ayjchan) April 28, 2026
In another email, Morens said he'd "learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA'd but before the search starts."
Morens' frequent correspondent in these emails was Peter Daszak, the former head of the now-shuttered nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, which received funding from Fauci's agency to conduct research on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China.
"These allegations represent a profound abuse of trust at a time when the American people needed it most — during the height of a global pandemic," said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
As subsequent investigations have revealed, EcoHealth Alliance was using federal funds to perform gain-of-function research, which involves manipulating viruses to make them more virulent, at the Wuhan Institute of Virology right up until the eve of the pandemic and likely in violation of federal restrictions on the funding of such research.
EcoHealth Alliance had some of its funding terminated by the Trump administration in April 2020. The nonprofit and Daszak were both debarred from receiving federal funds in the last days of the Biden administration over EcoHealth's own transparency lapses.
In emails to Daszak (who appears to be referred to as Co-Conspirator 1 in the DOJ indictment), Morens promised to "protect" him and pass information between him and Fauci.
According to the indictment, Daszak also illegally gifted wine to Morens in exchange for his advocacy on his behalf.
FISA reauthorization in doubt. A House vote to reauthorize the soon-expiring law that allows federal intelligence agencies to surveil the communications of foreigners and the Americans they talk to was pushed from yesterday to today amid an ongoing debate about adding privacy protections to the law.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the government to obtain the communications of foreign surveillance targets without needing to go to a judge to get a traditional warrant.
Privacy advocates argue the law punches a "gaping hole" in the Fourth Amendment by allowing federal intelligence agencies to read the communications of Americans who communicate with targeted foreigners.
The law is set to expire on Thursday. For the past several weeks, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.), at the urging of President Donald Trump, has been attempting to pass a "clean" three-year FISA reauthorization.
That's run into opposition from bipartisan privacy advocates who want warrant requirements added to the law before reauthorizing it. As CBS reports, House Republicans proposed a compromise bill with some additional privacy protections last week that does not include warrant requirements; that's failed to win over enough conservative holdouts.
Scenes from Washington, D.C.: King Charles III was in D.C. yesterday, doing all the things that visiting constitutional monarchs do. He spoke to Congress, tended to some beehives on the White House grounds, and made cracks about how the British burned the place down during our last war with each other.
NOW: King Charles gets a laugh at the White House State Dinner.
"I cannot help noticing the readjustments to the East Wing, Mr. President, following your visit to Windsor Castle last year."
"And I'm sorry to say that we British, of course, made our own small attempt at real… pic.twitter.com/0V2HdHvi44
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 29, 2026
Perhaps the lesson there is to forgive and forget. With enough time, all national grievances become punchlines. Or maybe it's that monarchs, and heads of state generally, are only charming and affable when they don't have any real power to tell anyone what to do.
QUICK HITS
- Trump and Iran swap threats over blockading the Strait of Hormuz.
- What's it going to be: tax cuts for boat owners, police, or sellers of New Jersey memorabilia?
is there like a competition in congress right now to see who can propose the most narrow tax credit pic.twitter.com/xVlf9MROcH
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) April 29, 2026
