A former adviser to infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents related to grant research funding and the Covid-19 pandemic. David Morens, who had worked under Fauci as a senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid) during the pandemic, entered his plea, to a conspiracy charge during a hearing in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland. The 78-year-old had been indicted in April on charges related to what prosecutors said was a scheme to thwart public records requests received by the agency beginning in April 2020 related to Covid-19 research grants. He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced on 12 November. The plea came after Fauci, who led the Niaid for 38 years and became the face of the US pandemic response, appeared before a Senate panel last month and repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination. The FBI said in 2023 that a leak from a Wuhan laboratory likely caused the pandemic, a claim China said had "no credibility whatsoever". The CIA said in January 2025 a lab leak was likely, but with "low confidence", while four other US intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council believe the virus most likely emerged via natural transmission from some animal. Prosecutors said that Morens pledged to ... counter the narrative Covid-19 leaked from a lab.