{"id":2254176,"date":"2024-05-28T10:55:05","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T14:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-gop-investigates-nih-foia-officer-in-covid-19-cover-up-inquiry\/"},"modified":"2024-05-28T10:58:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T14:58:54","slug":"house-gop-investigates-nih-foia-officer-in-covid-19-cover-up-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-gop-investigates-nih-foia-officer-in-covid-19-cover-up-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"House GOP probes NIH FOIA officer in COVID-19 concealment investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-gop-investigates-nih-foia-officer-in-covid-19-cover-up-inquiry%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2254176&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>House Republicans are\u200d investigating allegations that top officials\u2063 at the National Institutes\u2064 of Health deliberately avoided \u200bcomplying with Freedom \u2062of Information Act \u200drequests and oversight during the early stages of\u200d the COVID-19 pandemic.\u200c Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) wrote to current\u2064 NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli for more information \u2063on document \u2062retention,\u2063 personal email, and FOIA policies,\u2062 following \u2062revelations about \u200befforts to conceal public records requests. Wenstrup expressed concerns about a potential conspiracy\u200b to obstruct transparency at the NIH and NIAID, emphasizing\u200d the \u200bneed for accountability.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/republican-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"House Republicans\">House Republicans<\/a> are examining evidence that top leadership at the National Institutes of Health intentionally avoided compliance with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/foia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"House Republicans\">Freedom of Information Act <\/a>requests and other oversight efforts during the early stages of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"COVID-19 pandemic.\">COVID-19 pandemic.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/house-oversight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Select Subcommittee\">Select Subcommittee<\/a> on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) <a href=\"https:\/\/oversight.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2024.05.28-BRW-Letter-to-NIH-Re.-FOIA_Redacted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"wrote\">wrote<\/a> to current NIH Director <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/monica-bertagnolli\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"wrote\">Monica Bertagnolli<\/a> on Tuesday requesting more information regarding the agency\u2019s document retention, personal email, and FOIA policies. <\/p>\n<p>His inquiry follows the revelation that the former senior adviser to Dr. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/anthony-fauci\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Anthony Fauci \">Anthony Fauci <\/a>at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/healthcare\/3012505\/house-republicans-consider-criminal-charges-fauci-aide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"David Morens\">David Morens<\/a>, used his personal email address to avoid FOIA and received assistance from the agency\u2019s \u201cfoia lady\u201d to obfuscate public records requests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis evidence taken together suggests a conspiracy at the highest levels of NIH and NIAID to avoid public transparency regarding the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d Wenstrup wrote to Bertagnolli. \u201cIf what appears in these documents is true, this is an apparent attack on public trust and must be met with swift enforcement and consequences for those involved.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In an email chain between Morens and former NIH employee Gerald Keusch in February 2021, Morens referenced the so-called \u201cfoia lady\u201d instructing him how to delete emails from NIH records.<\/p>\n<p>Keusch advised Morens to use his personal email address to discuss sensitive information regarding COVID-19 in order to protect their mutual friend Peter Daszak, the head of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/healthcare\/3012771\/hhs-suspends-funding-to-head-of-organization-that-funded-wuhan-coronavirus-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"EcoHealth Alliance\">EcoHealth Alliance<\/a>, which had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dr-fauci-faces-call-to-resign-answer-for-shocking-report-about-u-s-government-funded-wuhan-research\/\" title=\"Dr. Fauci Faces Call To Resign, Answer For Shocking Report About U.S. Government Funded Wuhan Research\">funded coronavirus research<\/a> in Wuhan, China, using an NIH grant. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are right, i need to be more careful,\u201d Morens responded to Keusch. \u201cHowever, as i mentioned once before, i learned from our foia lady here how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-materials-may-implicate-fauci-in-aides-emails-scandal\/\" title=\"Fresh evidence suggests Fauci's involvement in aide's email controversy\">make emails disappear<\/a> after i am foia\u2019d but before the search starts, so i think we are all safe. Plus i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Morens told the select subcommittee when<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3013877\/new-materials-may-implicate-fauci-aide-emails-scandal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\" testifying\"> testifying<\/a> in an open hearing last week that he had been in contact with the public records officer for NIAID but she had said there was no way to delete emails permanently from NIH records. <\/p>\n<p>Fauci\u2019s top adviser also told the subcommittee last week that he did not realize emails from his government account constituted federal records.<\/p>\n<p>Evidence also uncovered by the subcommittee indicates that NIAID staff routinely misspelled keywords in their day-to-day email correspondence, such as COVID and EcoHealth, in order to avoid FOIA requests with specific keyword searches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter an agency receives a FOIA request, it is common to employ key word search terms to identify and subsequently produce responsive documents to the requester,\u201d Wenstrup wrote to Bertagnolli. \u201cHowever, it can be undermined by government employees that strategically use language to avoid key word searches.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The NIH did not respond to the <em>Washington Examiner\u2019s<\/em> request for comment on the letter.<\/p>\n<p>Although the select subcommittee is sharply divided on the origins of COVID-19, there is strong bipartisan agreement that accountability for potential corruption in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newly-released-documents-show-nih-funded-gain-of-function-research-in-china-experts\/\" title=\"Newly Released Documents Show NIH Funded Gain-of-Function Research in China: Experts\">government health agencies<\/a> is essential to restoring public trust.<\/p>\n<p>The leading Democrat on the subcommittee, Raul Ruiz (D-CA), said in his opening statement at Morens\u2019s hearing last week that the adviser\u2019s behavior \u201cwillingly betrays decades of dedication, diligence, and decorum for the thousands of federal scientists and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ny-gov-cuomo-shunned-experts-embraced-lobbyists-drove-top-health-officials-to-quit-over-pandemic-response-report\/\" title=\"NY Gov. Cuomo Shunned Experts, Embraced Lobbyists, Drove Top Health Officials To Quit Over Pandemic Response: Report\">public health workers<\/a> who came before [him].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not anti-science to hold you accountable for defying the public\u2019s trust and misusing official resources,\u201d Ruiz said to Morens.<\/p>\n<p>The legal counsel for Morens did not respond to the <em>Washington Examiner\u2019s <\/em>request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Wenstrup requested a briefing from the NIH regarding the agency\u2019s records policy to occur no later than June 4, one day after Fauci is scheduled to testify before the subcommittee.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Republicans are scrutinizing claims that NIH leaders deliberately dodged Freedom of Information Act requests and oversight during the COVID-19 outbreak&#8217;s onset. Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) wrote to current NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli seeking clarification<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2666,"featured_media":2254177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP23138700431589-1.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2254176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP23138700431589-1.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2666"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2254176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2254176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2254176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2254176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}