Michael Caputo

During the Reagan Administration, Caputo helped support the president's agenda in Central America.[2] He worked with Oliver North to foment propaganda as part of Reagan's public relations efforts in South America and in Central America.[4] After his work for the Reagan Administration he served as assistant director of the House of Representatives Gallery of the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association.[7] He next worked for President George H.W. Bush as director of media services in Bush's campaign in the 1992 United States presidential election.[7]

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Caputo established residence in Russia in 1994.[7][4][8] He served as an adviser to Boris Yeltsin in 1995.[2] In his capacity as advisor to Yeltsin, he was employed with the United States Agency for International Development.[7][9][2] He served as president of The Florence Group from 1994 to 1999, and stated he "played a pivotal role in electing Boris Yeltsin to his second term as President of the Russian Federation."[10]

Caputo was employed by Moscow-headquartered subsidiary of Gazprom, Gazprom-Media.[11][9][8] He was contracted by Gazprom in 2000 to work for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.[7][9] His task was to increase Putin's public relations standing, specifically his support level in the U.S.[11][9][8] He moved back from Russia to the U.S. in the year 2000.[4]

After returning to the U.S., Caputo was called by his former mentor Roger Stone, who convinced him to move to Miami Beach, Florida, and then Caputo founded his media advising company Michael Caputo Public Relations.[4] Caputo moved back to Europe in 2007 while advising a politician's campaign for parliament in 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[4]

Caputo worked as the campaign manager for Carl Paladino in the 2010 election of the governor of New York state.[2][12] Caputo was profiled in a subject piece about him during the campaign in The New York Times; the paper said of his campaign strategy: "Michael R. Caputo's impish spirit and no-holds-barred campaign style have helped propel his boss, Carl P. Paladino, a relatively unknown real estate mogul from Buffalo, to the Republican nomination for New York governor".[2]

Paladino was supported at the time by the Tea Party movement, and in an interview with The New York Times, Caputo embraced the outsider nature of Paladino's bid: "This is a campaign of junkyard dogs, not pedigreed poodles. Carl knows the background of everyone who works for him. He knows that each of us comes to the campaign with warts. And he has his own warts. We don't hide anything."[12]

Paladino explained his hiring choice of Caputo as campaign manager to The New York Times: "I'm facing some major demons here, and I needed someone who could go right back on top of them in a matter of minutes. You've got to let them know they are going to get punished."[2]

Donald Trump hired Caputo in 2014 to launch an astroturfing campaign in support of his stalking-horse bid for the Buffalo Bills. Caputo established a shell organization named "12th Man Thunder" (later renamed "Bills Fan Thunder" after a trademark dispute with the Texas A&M Aggies football team) and hired a fake leader, amputee Chuck Sonntag, whom Trump and Caputo figured would earn sympathy. When Trump placed his bid and was no longer allowed to have ties to the organization, Caputo went fully rogue and launched a naked smear campaign against one of the other bidders, Jon Bon Jovi and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The group's publicity stunts capitalized on already-simmering anti-Toronto sentiment, but it was ultimately a competitor to both bids, Buffalo Sabres owner and natural gas tycoon Terrence Pegula and his wife Kim Pegula, that bought the Bills franchise, greatly outbidding both Trump and Bon Jovi. Bills Fan Thunder remained in operation as a charity as of 2017.[13]

In 2016, offices of Michael Caputo Public Relations were located in East Aurora, New York.[4] Caputo also had staff located in Miami Beach, Florida, and Moscow, Russia.[4] During the 2016 New York Republican primary, Caputo became a political adviser to Trump in order to help him win the primary in that state.[8][4] At the time of his hiring he was employed as a commentator on a political talk program on WBEN AM radio.[4] In order to support Trump in New York, he joined forces with his former employer from the 2010 gubernatorial race, Carl Paladino.[4] While working on the Trump campaign, Caputo was placed in charge of communications for the candidate in New York.[9]

Caputo was a senior adviser to Trump's political efforts from November 2015 to June 2016.[14][15][10] On June 20, 2016, he was fired from the Trump campaign shortly after Corey Lewandowski was replaced as campaign manager by Paul Manafort.[10][16] He had tweeted in support of Lewandowski leaving; in his resignation letter to Manafort said he regretted the statement on Twitter.[11][10]

After Trump's election, Caputo maintained contacts with associates in the Trump Administration.[17] After news reports of Donald Trump's disclosure of classified information to Russia in May 2017, Caputo commented to the Associated Press about leaks from within the Trump Administration to the media: "This has all the markings of a coordinated, silent coup."[17] Caputo told USA Today that he attributed the leaks to disaffected members of the Stop Trump movement.[18] He called them "anti-Trump zealots".[18]

In 2017 and 2018 Caputo was a frequent guest of CNN programs.

In 2019 and 2020, Caputo posted numerous sexist tweets.[19]

In early 2020, Caputo multiple derogatory and crude tweets about Chinese people[19][20][21][22] and female individuals,[23] all of which he deleted shortly before assuming a position at HHS.

In April 2020, Caputo was appointed as assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for public affairs.[1][3]