Sen. Ron Johnson is demanding an interview with a key health official and says he is “deeply concerned” that government officials have “destroyed sensitive records” about the origins of COVID-19.
Johnson (R-Wis.) demanded that the Department of Health and Human Services make Dr. David Morens, a former aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci, available for an interview with its staff, and urged the HHS watchdog to take the serious matter.
“I am deeply concerned that HHS officials have intentionally deleted or destroyed sensitive records about the origins of COVID-19 or about other aspects of the pandemic,” Johnson, 68, wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. , obtained Wednesday by The Post. .
Supporting Johnson’s concerns is a June 17, 2021, email sent by Morens, a 25-year veteran of the National Institutes of Health, to colleagues about a request days earlier from Johnson for a tranche of documents on the NIH management of respiratory disease COVID-19. disease.
The Wisconsin Republican’s team has been investigating HHS’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic.Shutterstock
“I have tried to make sure that I do not keep any documents that I could take to other members of [American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene] be contacted for the production of similar documents,” Morens wrote.
“In other words, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about because there’s no ‘there’ there.”
Morens also highlighted his desire to receive correspondence at his private Gmail address. His email had the subject: “CONFIDENTIAL WITHIN OUR SMALL GROUP, PLEASE.”
Citing that email, Johnson concluded that “Morens may have intentionally deleted or destroyed records” and “directly obstructed my oversight efforts.”
Morens’ record-breaking practices have come under scrutiny by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which has since subpoenaed him.
David Morens suggested he used a personal email account to evade Freedom of Information Act requests.NIAID
Johnson demands an interview with Morens by Dec. 6 and also wants all text messages from Morens’ HHS-issued cell phone dating back to June 1, 2019, as well as emails from his email account, to be produced. Gmail.
It also demands “a detailed explanation of how HHS will hold Dr. Morens accountable” and reiterates its request for HHS documents related to the origins of COVID-19.
Johnson had made those requests for documents in June 2021 and March 2023.
All of Johnson’s demands outlined Wednesday had a Dec. 6 deadline for HHS to meet.
In August, Johnson asked HHS Supervisor Christi Grimm to investigate Morens and the documents situation.
Ron Johnson described his demands to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
Coinciding with Wednesday’s letter to Becerra, Johnson also wrote a letter to Grimm that same day renewing his call for a thorough investigation into the matter.
“I hope you and your office are taking this matter seriously,” he wrote.
Morens had worked as a senior adviser to Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1998 until last year, when Fauci retired.
In an email flagged by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Morens explained to colleagues that he would “always communicate in Gmail because my NIH email is constantly subject to FOIA” and that he would “delete everything you wouldn’t want to see in the New York Times.”
There has long been a debate about whether COVID-19 originated from a laboratory leak or a zoonotic spill.REUTERS
Morens had also told a Bloomberg reporter that HHS and the White House had prohibited her from “speaking[ing] about [COVID] ‘origins’ on the record,” but that he recently got some leeway if he didn’t mention his boss, according to an exchange noted by the House subcommittee.
“Tony doesn’t want his fingerprints on the origin stories,” Morens wrote in the email, dated July 29, 2021.
Johnson is the ranking member of the Senate’s permanent Investigations Subcommittee.
The Post contacted an HHS spokesperson for comment.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn