House GOP subpoenas NIH over alleged COVID-19 records violation

House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup on Friday announced a subpoena against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) seeking related to a top advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci's alleged use of a private email to circumvent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Wenstrup in September wrote to NIH acting Director Lawrence Tabak requesting information related to Dr. David Morens, his alleged use of a personal email to get around FOIA, and his alleged deletion of federal COVID-19 records. Wenstrup's request went unanswered.

The lawmaker asserted Friday that the subpoena's issuance came after "stonewalling by the NIH and a recent, lackluster production of documents that did not satisfy the Select Subcommittee’s previous requests."

"Any government official who deletes federal records and purposefully sidesteps accountability to the American people must be thoroughly investigated," Wenstrup said. "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. Still, NIH continues to refuse to comply with our investigation and suspiciously defends this potential federal records violation. Today's subpoena is another step in our pursuit to hold NIH and Dr. Morens accountable," he continued.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.