COVER-UP: Anthony Fauci's COVID Team Conspired to Evade FOIA Requests

With each new day, it seems, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus pandemic uncovers some fresh outrage. The latest? More evidence of attempts by members of Dr. Anthony Fauci's team to destroy government records, as well as their forwarding of official records to unofficial, unapproved recipients and other attempts to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

On Tuesday, the Subcommittee released information on their official X/Twitter account documenting the team's attempts to evade the FOIA requests.

Did @NIH's “FOIA lady” teach Dr. Fauci’s team how to hide COVID information?

New evidence shows that NIH officials:
✖️Opened an encrypted Proton Mail account
✖️Misspelled key words
✖️Forwarded confidential materials to Gmail

…all in an apparent effort to thwart federal law. pic.twitter.com/FxhrQn29MV
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) May 28, 2024

Today, Chairman @RepBradWenstrup is opening an investigation into this cover-up.

Read the letter to @NIHDirector Monica Bertagnolli here: https://t.co/hrZtlCv2dC

Read the letter to @USNatArchives here: https://t.co/r15dpiFn53
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) May 28, 2024

It's difficult, if not impossible, to see this as anything other than a deliberate attempt to evade providing information to the Subcommittee and, therefore, to the American people - who, I remind the readers, pay these people's salaries.

Also on Tuesday, the Subcommittee released a letter sent to Monica Bertagnolli, the current Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

House Select Subcommittee letter, 05/28/24:

"[E]vidence suggests a conspiracy at the highest levels of NIH…to avoid public tranpsarency…[T]his is an…attack on public trust that must be met with… swift enforcement and consequences for those involved."https://t.co/VlH3YE1Xtj pic.twitter.com/aj6S3xFydV
— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) May 28, 2024

The letter states in part:

This evidence taken together suggests a conspiracy at the highest levels of NIH and NIAID to avoid public transparency regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. A pandemic that took the lives of more than one million Americans. If what appears in these documents is true, this is an apparent attack on public trust and must be met with swift enforcement and consequences for those involved.
We write to you to request a staff level briefing no later than June 4, 2024, regarding NIH's document retention, transparency, FOIA, and personal e-mail policies. NIH serves the American taxpayer. The Select Subcommittee takes these allegations seriously and expects you do to (sic). Further, the Select subcommittee reserves the right to request transcribed interviews with NIH employees regarding the issues outlined in this letter.

This letter may be viewed in its entirety here.

Previously on RedState: Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Releases Memos Implicating Fauci Advisor, Others

That's a lot to absorb, but in summary, there appears to have been an ongoing, coordinated effort to conceal information from our elected representatives and, in so doing, from the American taxpayers. Not only is this a conspiracy to evade providing information, but it is quite possibly a conspiracy to evade being held to account for misleading the American public in the course of a pandemic that not only took American lives but also - in the course of the hastily-implemented and draconian restrictions and lockdowns - ruined the livelihoods of many Americans, put the U.S. economy into a tailspin, and added billions to the national debt while causing an inflationary cycle that is still ongoing.

Four Years Later - Life After Becoming a COVID Statistic

This may well be the most egregious, deliberate, and planned conspiracy to evade transparency and accountability since Watergate.

A breach of trust with the American people demands answers - and what's more, it demands accountability. There are too many indications, as shown in the documents included here, that there were ongoing and deliberate attempts to conceal information, as well as improper handling (and destruction) of government records to avoid said accountability. In a sane world, the people named in these records would be held to account.

But, I think we all know that this probably won't happen. If these people aren't held to account, then they, or others like them, will try this again - and again. In time there will be another national emergency, perhaps a pandemic, perhaps something else, and unaccountable bureaucrats will once again exercise power without consequences.

This has to stop here. We look forward with great interest to the results of the Subcommittee's briefing from NIH, and what actions will result from that briefing. There has to be an answer to this, if for nothing else, pour encourager les autres.