Sen. Johnson Seeks HHS IG Probe Into COVID Cover-Up

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has reportedly called on the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm to investigate allegations of a COVID-19 cover-up.

Johnson's letter to the IG this week makes allegations of concealment and destruction of records at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) dating back to 2014, the New York Post reported Friday.

It comes after the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed in June that Dr. David Morens, a senior adviser to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), emailed on Sept. 29, 2021 that he would "always try to communicate over gmail because my NIH email is FOIA'd constantly."

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a mechanism to permit journalists and independent watchdogs to review emails with public officials.

"These statements reveal an attempt to limit public access to certain communications directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially in violation of federal record keeping requirements," Johnson wrote in his letter to Grimm.

Morens' email exchange noted his gmail account was "hacked, probably by these GoF [gain-of-function] a**holes," telling others to forward emails "to any of my addresses and I will delete anything I don't want to see in The New York Times."

Republicans have accused Fauci of lying to Congress when he denied in May that the National Institutes of Health funded “gain of function” research — the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential impact in the real world — at a virology lab in Wuhan, China. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, even urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Fauci’s statements.

After the alleged gmail hacking, Morens sought assistance on securing his emails, according to the report.

"If official agency IT services were used to assist Dr. Morens' use of private email for official purposes, it raises questions about whether agency resources are being used appropriately and whether NIAID leadership is aware of or accepts these practices," Johnson added in his letter to the IG.

Morens' emails "have already drawn the attention of the National Archives and Records Administration, which in a July 10 letter called on NIH to probe the communications and report back on any findings within 30 days," according to Johnson.

Johnson's letter noted Grimm's IG office has previously refused to provide a briefing on "questionable email practices" and would "neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigations," the Post reported.

An official House Oversight Committee whistleblower had told GOP committee members he was told to "destroy any notes" about federal grants to the WIV dating back to 2014, when USAID and NIH have funded $1,413,720 to WIV in sub-grants tied to gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses, according to the Government Accountability Office in June.

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