Ex-Fauci top adviser offers apologies and excuses after COVID email revelations

Hours after the release of several seemingly damning emails revealing his provocative COVID-era communications, a former top adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci offered excuses and apologies – but few real answers – during a contentious congressional showdown.

Dr. David Morens, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) senior adviser, appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Wednesday afternoon with few insights about the alarming messages but a host of apologies to lawmakers. The newly released emails detail interactions between Morens and Dr. Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, a non-governmental organization that funded coronavirus research in Wuhan, China.

"It's just something I'm very ashamed that I can't put the toothpaste back in the tube," Morens said of the emails' language, much of which he attributed to being just "black humor."

Republican lawmakers accuse Morens of deleting emails and using his personal email account to skirt Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

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In one of the newly released emails to Daszak, Morens said he "learned from our FOIA lady here how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d, 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."

During Wednesday's testimony, Morens said "that was a joke" when House Rep. Richard McCormick, R-Ga., asked what he learned from the "FOIA lady."

"Are you sure about that? We can subpoena her email too," McCormick responded. "You said she gave you advice … so you were lying then but telling us the truth now?"

"I wasn't lying, I was