Biden COVID Advisor Put His FOIA Dodge in Text

A single sentence pulled from Anthony Fauci’s authorities cellphone often is the most damning line yet to emerge from the Biden administration’s COVID interior circle: “I’m sending this via text messaging to avoid any FOIA issues.”

Journalist Catherine Herridge recognized the sender as Michael Osterholm, a member of Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board. He despatched the message to “Jeff, Vivek, Tony and Rochelle,” the Biden administration’s total COVID interior circle, to focus on face masks, aerosol transmission and the administration’s public steering.

Herridge posted the screenshot Wednesday. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) obtained the texts from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through his investigation into COVID-19 origins as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which also has jurisdiction over the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

EXCLUSIVE: Fauci Text Implicates Biden Task Force

“I’m sending this via text messaging to avoid any FOIA issues.” -Michael Osterholm COVID-19 Advisory Board

Obtained by @ChuckGrassley via @HHS:

– Apparent admission Osterholm @mtosterholm is creating a federal document
-… pic.twitter.com/5E46HZ9YR9

— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) August 19, 2026

“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 did not bury the admission. He said outright that dodging FOIA was the explanation for the textual content; then despatched it instantly to the people working federal pandemic coverage.

But the FOIA dodge wasn’t the only bombshell in the message. Osterholm told the Biden COVID mind trust one thing the administration was not telling the public: that material masks offer little safety:

“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.”

Osterholm said U.S. producers had enough N95s for health employees, first responders, industrial customers and the public. HHS later produced the message from Fauci’s authorities telephone.

Under National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) steering, company business messages are federal data, regardless of whether or not they’re despatched through personal accounts or third-party apps, and must be preserved accordingly. NARA cites 18 U.S.C. Sections 641 and 2071 among the potential penalties for unlawfully eradicating or destroying them.

The screenshot alone would not show a crime. But Osterholm wrote in plain English that he selected textual content to “avoid any FOIA issues,” and despatched it to the people working the federal pandemic response. Herridge’s query cuts to the chase: “How widespread, and how many separate channels were used to avoid FOIA?”

Read More: Fauci’s Wingman Just Pled Guilty — Now It’s Time to Also Hold Him Accountable

What They Found on Fauci’s Phone Should Alarm Every Pregnant Woman Who Took the COVID Shot

This message is one thread in a a lot bigger web. Investigators have recovered more than 34,000 texts and 522 voicemails from Fauci’s authorities telephone alone, and congressional review has only just begun.

Context makes Osterholm’s admission inconceivable to ignore. The day before Herridge posted the screenshot, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) senior advisor David Morens pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a federal scheme to evade FOIA and the Federal Records Act (FRA). Prosecutors said Morens and others intentionally used his personal Gmail account to keep authorities communications out of public view.

Investigators have one telephone’s contents. Now they need the remaining of the threads.

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