New Details Emerge on FBI's Fauci Probe: Eight Scientists Targeted, Bongino Pushed for More

Since former Fauci adviser David Morens pleaded guilty this week to concealing federal records tied to COVID-19 origins research, new reporting from The New York Times shows the FBI's broader investigation into pandemic origins is far more expansive than the Morens case alone.

According to the Times, FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors have sought phone, email and payment records tied to at least eight scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The push covers whether the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and whether government scientists worked to downplay that possibility in early 2020.

Early last year, then-Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino met with dozens of agents at FBI headquarters in Washington, demanding to know why the pandemic-origins probe had stalled and why investigators weren't scrutinizing government scientists more aggressively, current and former officials told the Times.

The FBI's Cleveland field office has separately examined whether Fauci and other officials pressured virologists in early 2020 to understate the odds the virus came from a lab, the Times reported.

What prosecutors have so far

Morens pleaded guilty this week to conspiring to conceal federal records, admitting he used a private email account to dodge public records law while working at NIAID. DOJ prosecutors in Maryland subpoenaed records in his case back in September 2025, seeking evidence about Fauci specifically, including any emails he sent to certain researchers from a personal account, according to documents reviewed by the Times.

One guilty plea, from one adviser, for concealing records. It is not a finding that COVID came from a lab, and it is not a charge against Fauci himself.

The pardon complicates any Fauci charge

Just before leaving office in January 2025, then-President Joe Biden issued Fauci a preemptive pardon covering any federal crimes he may have committed dating back to January 2014, whether as NIAID director or in his role advising the White House during the pandemic, according to Yahoo News. That pardon is broad by design, and it would cover the exact period under FBI scrutiny now.

Fauci also invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during a Senate hearing in late July, refusing to answer questions about the pandemic's origins, per Yahoo's reporting. Notably, the AP's coverage of the Morens plea did not mention either the pardon or the Fifth Amendment invocations, leaving out context that matters for anyone trying to figure out what legal exposure Fauci actually faces.

If Fauci has a pardon covering the conduct being investigated, the practical question is clear: what is the FBI actually building toward? A pardon doesn't stop investigators from gathering evidence, and it doesn't cover people around him who weren't pardoned, like Morens. But it does mean a direct federal charge against Fauci for pandemic-era conduct would run straight into that legal shield.

The fair concern, and the honest gap in evidence

Skeptics of this investigation have a real point: there is still no definitive answer on COVID's origins, and, as the Times reporting itself states, no concrete evidence of a cover-up has surfaced. Demanding years of financial and communication records from eight scientists based on a theory that remains unproven is a serious use of federal power, and it deserves scrutiny regardless of who's in the Oval Office.

At the same time, the underlying question—whether taxpayer-funded research contributed to the pandemic, and whether officials shaded their public statements to avoid that possibility—is legitimate. Fauci pleading the Fifth on origins questions in a congressional hearing, whatever the legal justification, isn't going to quiet the people asking it.

Neither the FBI's national press office nor the DOJ have commented on the Times reporting, according to The Independent, which reached out to both. The FBI's Cleveland office review, the status of subpoenas tied to the other seven scientists, and whether any of them face charges Morens-style, remain open questions with no public timeline attached. Whether the broader investigation produces anything beyond the Morens plea is unresolved.