Newly released diary entries from Dr. Anthony Fauci reveal he privately coordinated with a since-indicted senior adviser he told Congress he barely worked with, and now he faces another round of Senate questioning.
Sen. Rand Paul released the diary entries Saturday through his Senate reading room page, setting the stage for what promises to be a contentious hearing Wednesday before Paul's Senate Homeland Security Committee. The entries, written by Fauci to himself, show the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director planned to "arrange for a phone call with David in order to determine more details as to what is going on", a reference to David Morens, his longtime senior adviser at NIAID.
That admission sits in direct tension with what Fauci told a House subcommittee under oath on June 3, 2024. At that hearing, Fauci stated plainly: "I knew nothing of Dr. Morens's actions regarding Dr. Daszak, EcoHealth, or his emails." He added that "despite his title, functionally Dr. Morens was not an adviser to me on institute policy or other substantive issues."
Morens was indicted this past May for concealing and deleting federal records, charges that carry the potential for decades in prison. The gap between Fauci's sworn testimony and his own private writings now forms the core question heading into Wednesday's hearing.
The diary entries go beyond a single phone call. Fauci wrote that he was speaking with both Morens and Jeffery Taubenberger, who became acting NIAID head last year under President Trump, about the importance of "systemic vaccination" for the American public. The entries show a working relationship with Morens that Fauci's congressional testimony characterized as functionally nonexistent.
Fauci also used the diary to describe what he saw as a political campaign against him. He wrote that "a few of the far right grantees of NIAID" were joining with "radical right wing people in the public as well as people in the Congress such as congressman Jim Jordan and Senator Rand Paul to try and connect me with the virus from WUHAN."
He went further, writing that Morens had told him directly about the political threat:
"In fact, David Morens has heard that these people are trying to 'bring me down'.. They are saying that I deliberately worked with the Chinese together with Peter Daszak to create a virus that would be released to the world."
So Fauci was receiving political intelligence from Morens, discussing it with him privately, and relying on Morens as a source of information about congressional scrutiny, all while later telling Congress that Morens was not functionally his adviser and that he knew nothing about Morens's activities.
The diary entries land on top of emails from Morens that the New York Post first reported in May 2024, emails that helped trigger the criminal investigation leading to Morens's indictment. In an April 26, 2020 email sent from a private account to EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, Morens wrote:
"There are things I can't say except Tony is aware and I have learned that there are ongoing efforts within NIH to steer this through with minimal damage to you, Peter, and colleagues, and to NIH and NIAID."
A year later, on April 21, 2021, Morens sent Daszak another message dismissing concerns about public records requests. He wrote that "there is no worry about FOIAs," explaining that he could "either send stuff to Tony on his private Gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house." Morens added: "He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble."
Those emails describe a deliberate system for routing sensitive materials around the Freedom of Information Act, the federal law that requires government officials to preserve and produce public records upon request. And they name Fauci as a knowing participant. Fauci's diary entries now confirm, at minimum, that the two men were in regular private contact during the same period, undercutting his sworn claim of ignorance.
Efforts by investigators to declassify documents related to Fauci and COVID origins have added further pressure to the former NIAID director's public account of events.
The federal indictment against Morens goes well beyond mishandling paperwork. Fox News reported that Morens, who served as a senior adviser at NIAID from 2006 to 2022, faces charges of conspiracy against the United States, falsification of federal records, and concealment of documents. Prosecutors allege Morens and unnamed co-conspirators moved government communications to private email accounts to hide discussions about COVID-19 origins and funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Morens allegedly bragged about the scheme in his own emails, writing that he "learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear." Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called the conduct a betrayal of public trust:
"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."
Just The News reported that Morens also allegedly received wine and expensive meals as gratuities for what he described as "behind-the-scenes shenanigans," including writing a scientific commentary advocating that COVID-19 had natural origins, framing the commentary as an "official act" to justify accepting the gifts. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said investigators "caught Dr. Morens red-handed as he boasted in emails about how the 'FOIA lady' coached him on how to hide records and cover-up information."
Morens has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His attorney declined to comment on the newly released diary entries. Fauci's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
One fact hangs over the entire proceeding. The Washington Examiner reported that Fauci is protected from joint indictment by a preemptive pardon issued by former President Joe Biden, according to molecular biologist Richard Ebright. That pardon means the diary entries, however damaging to Fauci's credibility, cannot lead to criminal charges against him, regardless of what they reveal about his knowledge of Morens's conduct.
FBI Director Kash Patel struck a broader note about accountability. "If you have engaged in activity conspiring against the United States, we will not stop until you face justice," Patel said. But in Fauci's case, Biden's pardon has already drawn that line.
The AP reported that the charges against Morens, 78, could result in decades in prison. He stands accused of using his private email to circumvent public records laws and conceal communications related to COVID-19 research grants, including efforts to revive a controversial coronavirus grant connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
That grant, a $4 million award to EcoHealth Alliance that included funding for the Wuhan lab, sits at the center of the long-running debate over whether American tax dollars helped fund research that may have contributed to the pandemic. Daszak, EcoHealth's president, was the recipient of both the grant and Morens's private emails describing Fauci's awareness of internal NIH efforts to manage the fallout.
Fauci now faces Sen. Paul's committee with his own words working against him. The diary entries do not prove Fauci directed Morens's alleged records destruction or participated in FOIA evasion. But they demolish his June 2024 claim that Morens was not functionally his adviser and that he knew nothing about Morens's activities. Fauci wrote about arranging calls with Morens, receiving political intelligence from him, and discussing policy with him, the opposite of the arm's-length relationship he described under oath.
The broader push to declassify COVID origins records has steadily eroded the official narrative that top health officials acted transparently during the pandemic. Each new document release, from Morens's emails to Fauci's diary, reveals a layer of private coordination that the public was never meant to see.
Biden's pardon may keep Fauci out of a courtroom, but it cannot keep him out of the witness chair. And this time, the senator across the table has Fauci's own handwriting.