Why Is KFF Health News Helping Hide Fauci’s Emails from the Public?

Fauci denied under oath using private email for official business, but his senior advisor said KFF Health News journalist Arthur Allen contacted him on “our secret back channel.”

5 minute read

Appearing on the Smerconish podcast last month, KFF Health News reporter Arthur Allen said he was shocked by emails that Congress released showing that Tony Fauci’s senior advisor, David Morens had been evading federal record laws. Shortly after Morens testified, Senator Rand Paul sent a letter to the Department of Justice urging them to investigate Morens for breaking the law.

In one example, Newsweek reported that Morens wrote an email “suggesting someone speak with Fauci through an unofficial, private channel.”

“He certainly didn’t do Fauci any favors,” Smerconish said to Alllen.

“Absolutely not,” Allen responded. He then expanded on Morens’ deeds:

I was just shocked and blown away by how stupid and how offensive his emails were, and he really shot himself in the foot. If you knew him, it’s kind of sad. But for everybody else it’s terrible. And yea, he didn’t help himself.

Fauci made it clear yesterday that he’s not standing up for Morens, who was a senior aide of his for 25 years. And the NIH seems like they’re going to fire him.

In fact, when Fauci appeared before the Committee he denied using an unofficial, private email. “Let me state for the record that to the best of my knowledge I have never conducted official business via my personal email,” Fauci wrote in his sworn statement to Congress.

After he was sworn in under oath, Fauci again denied using private email for official work.

Fauci’s sworn statements under penalty of perjury seem hard to square with an email that Morens sent suggesting that someone contact Fauci on an unofficial, private channel—and that someone is Arthur Allen.

In several emails, Morens and colleagues discussed interacting with KFF Health News reporter Arthur Allen. In one example, Morens wrote, "I suggested Arthur try to interview Tony directly and connected him to our 'secret' back channel. He emailed Tony a few hours ago."

Allen did not discuss this secret back channel on the Smerconish podcast, but I contacted Michael Smerconish to see if he had brought it up before the show went live. “Sorry I can add no value here,” Smerconish emailed me. “The public interview represents my only contact ever with the guest.”

Allen also failed to note the Morens’ “secret back channel” in a report he helped write on Morens’ appearance before Congress: “After Grilling an NIH Scientist Over Covid Emails, Congress Turns to Anthony Fauci.”

Curious to understand if Allen was hiding evidence that Fauci perjured himself when he said he hadn’t used a private email, I emailed Allen to ask what private email Fauci was using for this back channel. “Maybe you could clear this up by just posting the email on social media?”

Allen did not respond.

KFF Health News is a nonprofit news service whose articles appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today, as well as PBS and NPR. So I emailed KFF Health News publisher David Rousseau and executive editor Alex Wayne to ask why KFF Health News did not disclose Arthur Allen’s participation in Fauci’s secret back channel.

I also asked why Allen was allowed to report on a national controversy for which he was an active participant. Morens has already been referred over to the Department of Justice for using a private email and Fauci faces the same possible consequences.

“I realize standards are not what they were in journalism, but doesn't KFF require disclosure when a journalist is an active participant in a topic KFF is reporting on?” I asked.

Rousseau and Wayne did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

When I contacted House investigators, they told me Fauci’s lawyers deny that he used a private email and that they continue to investigate the matter.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services sent the New York Times a statement emphasizing that department policy forbids employees from using personal email accounts to do official business. “H.H.S. is committed to the letter and spirit of the Freedom of Information Act and adherence to federal records management requirements,” the Times reported.

KFF Health News seems terribly uninterested in whether Fauci perjured himself and lied to the public when he claimed he was not using a private email for work. So last week, I filed a freedom of information act request to see all communications between Arthur Allen and Tony Fauci during the time when Morens said Allen emailed Fauci.

Will keep you updated.