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Law360 (October 18, 2022, 5:13 PM EDT) -- A U.S. House of Representatives panel has found that the Trump administration prohibited federal health officials from giving out correct information about COVID-19, saying his team overruled government scientists and tried to change public communications about the virus.
Former President Donald Trump also allegedly barred the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from doing telebriefings for months during the pandemic, and had the Office of the Vice President approve any media requests related to the pandemic, according to a report Monday from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.
The report, which covered problems with how Trump and his administration dealt with COVID-19 in 2020, referred to a CDC official who said that requiring the agency to get that kind of approval led to confusion and prevented information from being shared as quickly as possible.
And in the early stages of the pandemic, Trump gave his ally Michael Caputo a position at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that allowed him to steer all COVID-related communications, the subcommittee said.
The subcommittee said there were instances of "Trump administration political appointees repeatedly [interfering] in CDC's coronavirus guidance –– overruling scientists to weaken CDC's public health recommendations, including its guidance for faith communities, a meatpacking plant, polling locations and voters, restaurants and bars and testing."
Additionally, the subcommittee said that before the autumn and early winter months of 2020, the CDC was barred by the former administration from issuing a transportation mask ordinance. That prohibition happened even though transportation industry parties supported such a requirement since vaccines for COVID-19 weren't available yet, the subcommittee said.
Officials in the former administration also tried "to influence CDC's scientific reports –– attempting to change the publication process, manipulate the content, or block the dissemination of at least 19 different reports that they deemed to be politically harmful to President Trump," the subcommittee said.
"The select subcommittee's investigation has shown that the previous administration engaged in an unprecedented campaign of political interference in the federal government's pandemic response, which undermined public health to benefit the former president's political goals," said Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who chairs the subcommittee, in a statement. "As [Monday's] report shows, President Trump and his top aides repeatedly attacked CDC scientists, compromised the agency's public health guidance, and suppressed scientific reports in an effort to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus."
Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday. Caputo could not immediately be reached for comment.
--Editing by Adam LoBelia.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
