Commentary: Resurrecting a discredited theory on COVID's origin, DOJ indicts an ex-Fauci aide over old emails

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According to Department of Justice officials including FBI Director Kash Patel, the indictment of David M.Morens for using his personal email account on official business is all about protecting the sanctity of government communications and upholding the federal Freedom of Information Act.“Circumventing records protocols with the intention of avoiding transparency is something that will not be tolerated by this FBI,” Patel said in the announcement of Morens’ indictment Tuesday.

Many news reports of the indictment, which was unsealed Monday in Maryland federal court, took the DOJ at its word.That’s an error.

In reality, the indictment has nothing to do with government email rules.Scientists rely on open communication and collaboration....

So everybody’s connected, and that’s what’s exploited in these conspiracy stories.It’s made to look nefarious.— Zoologist Peter DaszakRather, it’s a transparent effort to revive the largely discredited hypothesis that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory through experiments there that were funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, headed at the time by Anthony Fauci.

(Timothy Belevetz, a lawyer for Morens, declined to comment on the indictment.)A few points about this.Commentary on economics and more from a Pulitzer Prize winner.

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First, there has never been and still isn’t any evidence that COVID originated in a Chinese lab, much less that Fauci, a revered epidemiologist, was complicit in the pandemic.The overwhelming weight of scientific opinion in...