House GOP subpoenas NIH 'FOIA lady' over Fauci adviser's alleged efforts to dodge records requests

Margaret Moore, dubbed by some the “FOIA Lady” for the National Institutes of Health, has been subpoenaed and thus must legally appear for a deposition to discuss her role in an alleged conspiracy to teach others how evade the Freedom of Information Act and keep information related to COVID-19 a secret.

Congressman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, said in a Monday press release that while Moore has been issued a subpoena, her lawyer told the committee she expected to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when she testifies on October 4.

Wenstrup and his subcommittee say they have evidence that Moore instructed Dr. David Morens, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to delete records and use his personal email account to skirt FOIA requests.

On one occasion, according to Wenstrup, Morens wrote in an email, “I learned the tricks last year from an old friend, Marg Moore, who heads our FOIA office and also hates FOIAs.”

On anther occasion, Wenstrup said that Morens wrote, “I learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear.”

According to the press release from the subcommittee on Monday, “This email correspondence appears to implicate Ms. Moore in Dr. Morens’ unlawful actions and raises serious questions about her involvement in a potentially larger conspiracy to hide information from the American people.”