emails

Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies before a Senate committee hearing in 2022 in Washington, D.C. One of Fauci’s former aides has been charged with concealing emails, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Fauci is not implicated in the case. File Photo by Greg Nash/UPI | License Photo

April 28 (UPI) — A former aide to Anthony Fauci faces charges for allegedly concealing emails that involve the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.

David M. Morens, 78, worked with Fauci from 2006 to 2022. Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the president from 2021 to 2022, is not accused of any wrongdoing in the case. Congressional Republicans have been investigating the U.S. coronavirus response, which started during President Donald Trump‘s first administration.

The indictment charges Morens with conspiracy against the United States and destruction and concealment of records in a federal investigation. Prosecutors say that he purposefully concealed emails he’d exchanged with the president of a nonprofit group. This group had worked with a Chinese lab that’s faced scrutiny over a perceived connection to the coronavirus, the Washington Post reported.

The indictment does not name the president or the group, but previous records have shown the former to be Peter Daszak, former president of EcoHealth Alliance, the Post reported. The group received a grant in 2014 to study bat coronaviruses.

Morens was released on his own recognizance after appearing Monday in federal court in Maryland. He has said he tried to keep some records off his government email in part to keep coronavirus misinformation from spreading and to discourage conspiracy theories.

Controversy over the origins of the virus has existed for as long as it’s been known. While many scientists say it jumped naturally from bats to humans through another animal, Trump and his administration have promoted other theories, including that the virus came from a Chinese lab.

Some Republicans hailed the charges against Morens as validation, including Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

“I applaud the Trump Justice Department for taking action to hold his public official accountable for hiding information from the American people,” Comer said Tuesday.

Under Trump’s second administration, the White House’s covid.gov website has been changed to a site that promotes the “lab leak” theory, replacing information about vaccines, testing and health issues related to the virus.

The low-cost airline is cancelling flights in May and June due to soaring aviation fuel prices linked to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East

An airline that operates routes to and from the UK is axing flights in May and June because of surging fuel costs. Transavia, the budget airline owned by the Air France-KLM group, is scrapping scheduled services for May and June to cut expenses as aviation fuel prices soar due to the Middle East conflict.

The Air France-KLM group’s low-cost arm will change its timetable for May and June to streamline costs amid rocketing fuel prices linked to the Middle East war, a spokesperson confirmed to AFP. The airline operates from London Stansted to Rotterdam several times a week, and is used by tourists who fly to Schiphol airport in the Netherlands before going on to other European destinations with Transavia.

“Due to the current geopolitical situation in the Middle East and its impact on aviation fuel prices, Transavia France is adapting its flight schedule and is forced to cancel several flights scheduled for May and June 2026,” the carrier, which runs medium-distance routes, stated.

The cancellations represent “less than 2% of the flight schedule for the May-June period,” a spokesperson informed AFP. Transavia said “customers affected by a cancellation are notified individually by SMS and email.” Details of which routes are affected have not been disclosed so far.

They can then “benefit, according to their choice, from a free rescheduling, a voucher, or a full refund of their ticket.” Additionally, “for the majority of cancelled flights, a rescheduling solution within 24 hours is offered,” the airline states.

Europe normally gets half of its fuel from Gulf nations. However, since the start of the war between the United States and Iran in late February, the Strait of Hormuz has been shut down by Tehran.

In Brussels, European Commissioner Dan Jorgensen warned that the EU was “approaching very rapidly” a potential supply crisis, raising concerns about a summer characterised by “higher airfares and cancellations.” Airlines including Transavia have already begun raising ticket prices, with increases averaging approximately 10 euros per return journey, according to the carrier’s spokesperson speaking to AFP.

Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones warned on Sunday that the ongoing conflict is likely to push up costs for energy, food and flight tickets in the coming months, with potential disruptions to energy supplies affecting production rather than causing empty supermarket shelves.

“You’re going to see prices go up a bit as a consequence of what Donald Trump has done in the Middle East,” he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme. “That’s probably going to come online not just in the next few weeks, but the next few months. There’s going to be a long tail from this.”

When pressed on how long elevated prices could last, he indicated it would be roughly eight months after the Strait of Hormuz is reopened and tensions in the region begin to ease. “I think our best guess is eight-plus months from the point of resolution that you’ll see economic impacts coming through the system,” the minister said.

Last week, German airline Lufthansa said it would cut 20,000 European short-haul flights over the summer. It blamed the price of jet fuel.

An industry expert told travel journalist Simon Calder on his podcast last week that he expected more flights to be cut by airlines. Ted Wake, managing director of Kirker Holidays, said: “I think Lufthansa has got a very comprehensive schedule. Twenty thousand flights isn’t a drop in the ocean but it’s a relatively small number if you look at the overall picture.

“I think other airlines within the UK market will be doing something similar.”

WASHINGTON — A lead attorney for the Department of Homeland Security suggested that federal agents should have “just started hitting the rioters and arresting everyone that couldn’t get away” during an anti-ICE protest in Los Angeles last June, internal emails show.

The note was in an email chain obtained by the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight through the Freedom of Information Act and shared exclusively with The Times.

In it, attorneys for Homeland Security appear to be discussing the June 9 lawsuit filed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom over President Trump’s deployment of thousands of California National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

Under the subject line “California DOD Lawsuit,” officials coordinated legal filings defending the Trump administration and included a draft declaration by the Los Angeles field office director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement supporting the deployment of military forces.

The final email in the thread was from Joseph Mazzara, then-acting DHS general counsel, and he appears to be referring to an incident in which protesters tried to breach a protective line at a federal building.

On June 11, he wrote: “Every time I read about the battering ram incident I’m just floored at how wild that is.”

Referring to law enforcement as “they,” he continued: “They should have, when they brought the line in, just started hitting the rioters and arresting everyone that couldn’t get away from them. No one likes being hit by a stick, and people tend to run when that starts happening in earnest.”

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Mazzara was later appointed deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Politico reported that Mazzara is among 10 staffers who followed former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to the State Department after she was fired this month from DHS and given a new role as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.

The battering ram incident Mazzara referred to is detailed in court documents for the lawsuit.

A June 19 order from a panel judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals states that Trump administration attorneys presented evidence of protesters interfering with federal officers. The protesters threw objects at ICE vehicles, “pinned down” several Federal Protective Service officers and threw “concrete chunks, bottles of liquid, and other objects,” the order said.

Protesters also “used ‘large rolling commercial dumpsters as a battering ram’ in an attempt to breach the parking garage of a federal building,” the order states.

Mazzara’s comment in the email thread with other Homeland Security attorneys was given to American Oversight with a watermark showing the agency had intended to withhold it. American Oversight also received a version of the documents with that statement redacted.

Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, said it’s no wonder the administration wanted to keep Mazzara’s comments hidden.

“They reveal a level of hostility toward protesters that is deeply at odds with the government’s obligation to protect civil liberties — and there’s no FOIA exemption that justifies hiding them,” she said.

Kerry Doyle, the former top ICE attorney during the Biden administration, said Mazzara’s comments show a shocking carelessness about the potential for harm against both the general public and the officers he was employed to protect.

The email, she said, “seems to encourage, or, at the very least, support constitutional violations by the operators that are supposed to be getting legal counsel from him to avoid violating the law.” Plus, commenting on operational strategy is outside the scope of his responsibilities, she said.

“He’s doing a disservice to the people that are on the front line, that rely on him and his colleagues to give them the parameters of what they can and can’t do,” Doyle added. “If you give them bad legal advice, you are setting them up for liability.”

Noem’s removal came amid backlash against an escalation of violence during Trump’s crackdown on immigration, including the shooting deaths of U.S. citizen protesters by immigration agents.

Doyle said part of the secretary’s job is to set the tone for the agency so the rank and file know what is expected of them. Mazzara’s comments, she said, show how that tone has permeated all facets of the agency.

After the U.S. Supreme Court cast doubt on the Trump administration’s legal theory for using troops in domestic law enforcement operations, the president in December began removing the National Guard from Los Angeles and other Democratic-led cities.

The protests last summer caused significant property damage in a small section of downtown Los Angeles. But grand juries refused to indict many demonstrators accused by federal prosecutors of attacking agents, and a Times review of alleged assaults found that most incidents resulted in no injuries.