USA: Accused of having “disappeared” emails related to the Covid pandemic, invokes the 5th amendment to quit

2024-10-07 14:53:12

Former employee of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, Margaret Moore, is accused by the Republican Party of helping to hide public emails in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

As a former Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) “public liaison,” whose role is to assist requesters and facilitate their requests for information from relevant agencies, he is said to have taught other members NIH methods for evade transparency requests by deleting emails while using personal accounts. During his testimony before a subcommittee of the House of Representatives, he invoked his right to the 5th Amendment, thus avoiding incrimination, we learn from FoxNews. In fact, this Fifth Amendment allows you to refuse to answer questions or testify at a trial if doing so risks exposing you to criminal prosecution…

Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup said, “Instead of using NIH’s FOIA office to provide transparency and accountability, which the American people deserve, it appears that ‘FOIA Lady,’ Margaret Moore, has helped circumvent federal laws on records management” and then adds “his alleged plan to help NIH officials delete Covid-19 documents and use their personal emails to avoid FOIA requests is revolting and deserves a thorough investigation.”

As for Dr. David Morens, Fauci’s chief advisor, he explained: “I learned from this ‘FOIA lady’ how to make emails disappear after receiving a FOIA request, but before the search begins.”

The FOIA, like its French counterpart, the CADA, grants citizens the right to request access to documents held by public and government institutions.

The allegations against Margaret Moore are serious and highlight the obstruction of the transparency mechanism in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The documents sought by the Covid subcommittee would provide, among other things, information on the relationship between the NIH and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, from which the virus emerged.