A single sentence, ripped from Dr. Anthony Fauci's government cellphone, lays bare the calculated deceit within the Biden administration's COVID inner circle: "I'm sending this via text messaging to avoid any FOIA issues." This isn't a slip-up; it's a stark admission of intent to evade public scrutiny from a key White House advisor.
The sender, identified by veteran journalist Catherine Herridge, was Michael Osterholm, a member of Joe Biden's own COVID-19 Advisory Board. He didn't just send it to Fauci; his message landed directly in the digital laps of "Jeff, Vivek, Tony and Rochelle"—the entire high-level team steering federal pandemic policy. The topic? The glaring inconsistencies between public mask guidance and scientific reality.
Herridge unveiled the screenshot, a crucial piece of evidence pried from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). Grassley, leveraging his position as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee with jurisdiction over the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), is relentlessly pursuing answers about COVID-19 origins and the government's response.
"I'm sending this via text messaging to avoid any FOIA issues. On Friday a Newsmax reporter asked Jen Psaki about my comments on face cloth coverings and protection against SARS-CoV-2 transmission."
Osterholm’s words could not be clearer. This was a deliberate maneuver to sidestep transparency, communicated directly to the very officials shaping the nation’s pandemic response.
But the FOIA dodge wasn't the only explosive revelation. In the very same message, Osterholm confirmed what many Americans suspected but the administration refused to admit: cloth masks offered little to no real protection.
“Since April, 2020, I have been consistent in my messaging about the roles that aerosols play in transmission, and the limited benefit that cloth face coverings play in reducing risk. N-95s are necessary to be effective reducing risk with aerosol transmission.”
This was a stunning admission, directly contradicting the public health narrative pushed by the Biden administration and their media allies, who often championed cloth masks as an essential tool. Osterholm even pointed out that U.S. manufacturers had ample N95s for everyone, from healthcare workers to the general public—exposing another layer of manufactured crisis and misinformation.
Under National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) guidance, any agency business conducted via personal accounts or third-party apps constitutes federal records and must be preserved. The law is clear, and the penalties for unlawfully removing or destroying these records are severe, including federal charges. While one screenshot doesn't automatically prove a crime, Osterholm's explicit intent to "avoid any FOIA issues" speaks volumes about the culture of secrecy. As Herridge rightly questions, "How widespread, and how many separate channels were used to avoid FOIA?"
This text message is not an isolated incident; it's a vital thread in a much larger tapestry of government evasion. Only a day before Herridge posted this screenshot, David Morens, a former senior advisor to NIAID, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a federal scheme specifically designed to evade FOIA and the Federal Records Act. Prosecutors detailed how Morens and others deliberately used personal email accounts to shield government communications from public view. Investigators have only just scratched the surface, recovering over 34,000 texts and 522 voicemails from Fauci's government phone alone. The full scope of this systemic deceit is likely far greater.
The American people deserve full transparency and accountability from their government, especially concerning decisions that fundamentally impacted their lives, health, and freedoms. The continuous revelations of officials actively attempting to hide critical information from the public betray the public trust and underscore the urgent need for robust oversight and a complete clean-up of the deep state bureaucracy that thinks it's above the law.
