Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Robert Redfield told staff to delete an email from a political appointee of President Donald Trump seeking control over the agency’s scientific reports on the pandemic, Politico reported Thursday.
The instruction was revealed at a closed-door interview with the House subcommittee probing the White House's coronavirus response on Monday, Politico reported. The committee is headed by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.
On Thursday, Politico highlighted the Aug. 8 email from Paul Alexander, who was then the scientific adviser to Health and Human Services spokesperson Michael Caputo, looking to water down the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports to match Trump’s effort to downplay the virus.
"I was instructed to delete the email," MMWR editor Charlotte Kent told the House subcommittee on Monday.
Kent said she never saw the email herself because she was on vacation when it was sent, Politico reported. "I went to look for it after I had been told to delete it, and it was already gone," she told the House subcommittee.
Clyburn, who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, on Thursday sent a letter warning Redfield and HHS Secretary Alex Azar that instructing staff to delete documents is unethical and possibly a violation of federal record-keeping requirements. The letter was posted by both Politico and Axios.
"Federal employees have affirmative obligations to preserve documents, and destruction of federal records is potentially illegal," Clyburn wrote. "Federal law also provides for up to three years of imprisonment for willful destruction of federal records."
An HHS spokesperson didn’t answer questions about whether Redfield had asked staff to delete the email, but told Politico the House subcommittee had wrongly characterized Kent's remarks, urging the release of the transcript.
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