Michael Caputo

Last updated
3+12 months. He said it was because the MMWR reporting contained "political content" as well as scientific information, adding that the changes suggested by his office were "infrequently" accepted by CDC. [43] Caputo appointed Canadian epidemiologist Dr. Paul Alexander as scientific advisor. Alexander tried unsuccessfully to get all issues of MMWR held up until he personally approved them. [43] He tried to prevent CDC scientists from writing or saying that COVID-19 could be transmitted by children, which he said had "zero" data to support it, and would undermine Trump's goal of having children return to school. In reply, other scientists cited published studies of transmission in summer camps and households. [2] Citing concerns about the political leanings of CDC scientists, Caputo delayed for a month the publication of a report on hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 that concluded "the potential benefits of these drugs do not outweigh their risks." [2] In emails to the head of CDC, Alexander accused CDC scientists of attempting to "hurt the president" and writing "hit pieces on the administration". [44] CDC resisted many of the changes, but increasingly allowed HHS personnel to review articles and suggest changes before publication. [43] Emails obtained by The New York Times in September 2020 showed Caputo and Alexander working to discredit CDC scientists, notably principal deputy director Anne Schuchat, and to silence scientists speaking to the press, in an effort to depict a rosier outlook for the pandemic. [45]

Caputo was the key figure in a planned HHS advertising campaign, funded with $300 million requisitioned from the CDC, which aimed to "defeat despair" about COVID-19 by airing video interviews between administration officials and celebrities. [46] The campaign suffered numerous setbacks, including opposition from HHS officials regarding the aim of the campaign and a lack of interest from celebrities. Also, the company hired to film the interviews, which is headed by a business associate of Caputo's, had no experience with public health campaigns and struggled with the amount of work required to produce the videos. [47] Senior House Democrats launched an investigation into a $250 million contract awarded to a market research firm, and questioned the political motivations behind airing such a campaign right before the 2020 presidential election. [48] In a Facebook video on September 13, Caputo said that Trump had personally directed him to work on the campaign. [49]

On September 13, 2020, Caputo asserted in a video on his personal Facebook page that CDC scientists were engaged in "sedition" with a "resistance unit" against Trump, and were "meeting in coffee shops" to plan their next attack on Trump. Caputo added that left-wing "hit squads being trained all over this country" were preparing an armed insurrection after the 2020 presidential election, advising his listeners to "buy ammunition". [5] He claimed that the shooting of a right wing protester in Portland had been "a drill". [50] He continued, "You understand that they're going to have to kill me, and unfortunately, I think that's where this is going." He later said his physical and mental health were deteriorating and he feared being alone, describing "shadows on the ceiling" in his apartment. [5] On September 14, Caputo's hometown newspaper, The Buffalo News , released an editorial calling for his removal, "(...) What's lunacy is for paranoia and political calculations to be coloring the dissemination of scientific knowledge during a pandemic. Caputo's ideas about managing a health crisis need to be put out to pasture." [51] On September 15, Caputo apologized to HHS staff and indicated he might soon be leaving the agency, possibly on medical leave, [52] admitting "he had never read" one of the MMWRs. [52] On September 16 he announced that he was taking a 60-day medical leave from his post "after consultation with President Trump and Secretary Azar." Alexander was also said to be leaving. Caputo never returned to work. [53]

Two days after Alexander was ousted and Caputo went on leave, the CDC reversed its much-criticized statement saying that asymptomatic people who have been in close contact with a person infected with the coronavirus did not need to receive COVID-19 testing; [54] the statement had been forced through at the direction of HHS leadership and the White House over the objections of scientists and without going through the usual CDC scientific review process. [55]

Investigation

Due to his time working on the Trump campaign and the fact that he previously worked for politicians in Russia, Caputo was contacted by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on May 9, 2017, as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. [29] [14] [30] The House Intelligence Committee requested Caputo come in and be interviewed voluntarily and submit to the committee relevant documents associated with its investigation. [29] [14] [30]

During a March 20, 2017, hearing, Representative Jackie Speier questioned FBI Director James Comey about Caputo, and cited employment with Gazprom and history in Ukraine. [29] [14] [30] Caputo worked with the House Intelligence Committee to respond to queries. [15] [30] Posting to social media, Caputo denied ties to Russia while on the Trump campaign. [30] Caputo told the House Intelligence Committee: "The only time the President and I talked about Russia was in 2013, when he simply asked me in passing what it was like to live there in the context of a dinner conversation." [15] [30]

In May 2016, Caputo and Roger Stone had met with Henry Greenberg (a.k.a. Henry Oknyansky), [56] a Russian national who claimed to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Caputo later denied contact with Russian officials or having discussed Russia with Trump or with other campaign aides. [30] Caputo said in June 2017 that it was not until prosecutors informed him that Greenberg was Russian that he learned the man he had spoken with in 2016 was not a U.S. citizen. [57]

Caputo hired attorney Dennis Vacco to represent him during the investigation, and subsequently stated that he had liquidated his children's college funds to pay Vacco. [58]

Personal life

While working in Russia in the 1990s, Caputo met and married a Russian student studying astrophysics; their marriage ended in a divorce. [9] [11] Caputo became a Catholic in 2000, later saying this religious change helped him find peace. [9] While advising in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2007, Caputo met Maryna Ponomarenko, who became his second wife. [29] [14] [9]

As of 2016, Caputo resided in East Aurora, New York, with his wife and their two children. [9]

On September 24, 2020, a spokesman for Caputo's family announced that he had been diagnosed with metastatic head and neck cancer which originated in his throat. [59]

As of 2021, he lives in Florida. [60]

See also

Notes

  1. In March 2021, Caputo told Mother Jones that he had been a "business partner and friend for 25 years" of Sergey (Georgy) Petrushin, a Russian that lives in Miami and co-produced Caputo's documentary film The Ukraine Hoax: Impeachment, Biden Cash, and Mass Murder with guest host Michael Caputo which aired on January 21, 2020, on One America News Network only two weeks before the United States Senate acquittal of Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial. [17] Others supporting Caputo and his co-producer Petrushin in this documentary film include Konstantin Kilimnik, who is a member of the Russian intelligence community and an associate of Paul Manafort who described Kilimnik as Manafort's "Russian Brain", [18] [19] [20] Andrii Telizhenko, who is a close associate of Rudy Giuliani, and Andrii Derkach, who is a Russian intelligence agent that graduated from the FSB Academy. [17] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]

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Further reading

Michael Caputo
Michael R. Caputo official photo.jpg
Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Public Affairs
In office
April 16, 2020 January 20, 2021