- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has appointed Michael Caputo to be its new Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, a top communications position.
- Caputo is a loyalist to President Donald Trump, who has worked on Republican campaigns since the 1980s, and for a Russian state-owned energy company in the 1990s as a public-relations consultant.
- He is also a longtime associate of political strategist Roger Stone, who was found guilty late last year of lying to Congress and witness tampering in the Mueller investigation.
- In recent years Caputo has spread conspiracy theories alleging that the investigations into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, and Trump's 2019 Ukraine phone call, were plots by elites to damage Trump's presidency.
- The appointment comes amid tensions between HHS Secretary Alex Azar and President Donald Trump.
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Michael Caputo, a loyalist to President Donald Trump who has been scrutinized for his ties to Russia, has been appointed to a top communications position in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), secretary Alex Azar confirmed Wednesday.
"I'm delighted to have Michael Caputo join our team at @HHSGov as our Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, especially at this critical time in our nation's public health history," Azar tweeted Wednesday.
Politico first broke the news of the appointment.
"I am honored to serve the President to the best of my abilities in this time of crisis and, in so doing, the American people," Caputo said in a statement to the outlet.
A source told CNN that Caputo had been sworn into the role on Tuesday, and predicted that an uncomfortable power dynamic would develop between Azar and Caputo.
Tensions have developed in recent months between Azar and senior Trump administration officials, as well as the president himself.
According to recent reports, not denied by the HHS, Trump ignored Azar's warnings back in January about the urgency of the coronavirus spreading from China, but the president ignored his counsel and continued to downplay the likely impact of the disease.
Caputo is a veteran Republican strategist, Roger Stone associate, and Russia PR consultant
Caputo is a veteran Republican strategist and communications consultant, who moved to Russia in the 1990s after the breakup of the Soviet Union, where he worked for the US government.
He later served as a PR adviser to a subsidiary of Gazprom, a state-owned Russian energy company.
In testimony to the House Intelligence Committee last December he denied that he had worked as an "image consultant" to Vladimir Putin.
Caputo is also a longterm associate of disgraced political strategist Roger Stone, who was found guilty in November of lying to Congress and witness tampering as part of Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
Caputo was appointed as a communications adviser on Trump's presidential campaign in 2015, and left the following year after tweeting to celebrate the dismissal of then-campaign chief Corey Lewandowski.
In May 2018, Caputo was interviewed as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. He was not charged with any offenses.
In February he published a book in which he claimed that both the Russia probe and the Ukraine investigation that resulted in Trump's impeachment last year were part of a plot to "enrich global insiders like Hunter Biden, George Soros, and more."
Hunter Biden is the son of Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump's efforts last year to pressure Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden's work for a Ukrainian energy firm on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations resulted in his impeachment.
Jewish financier and liberal philanthropist Soros has long been the focus of right-wing conspiracies, which have been denounced by the Anti-Defamation League.
I'm delighted to have Michael Caputo join our team at @HHSGov as our Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, especially at this critical time in our nation's public health history. pic.twitter.com/xf2YFeXzqy
- Secretary Alex Azar (@SecAzar) April 15, 2020