CDC Head Resigns After News She Bought Tobacco Shares

ATLANTA, GA — Brenda Fitzgerald, President Donald Trump's pick for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has resigned following revelations she bought shares in a tobacco company just a month into her leadership. Politico had reported on Tuesday that Fitzgerald, the Trump administration’s top public health official, bought tobacco shares while head of the agency tasked with reducing tobacco use.

Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable disease and death.

A spokesman for the Health and Human Services Department confirmed to the news outlet that Fitzgerald's financial manager made the potentially conflicting stock purchases. She later sold them, he said.

“Like all presidential personnel, Dr. Fitzgerald’s financial holdings were reviewed by the HHS Ethics Office, and she was instructed to divest of certain holdings that may pose a conflict of interest. During the divestiture process, her financial account manager purchased some potentially conflicting stock holdings. These additional purchases did not change the scope of Dr. Fitzgerald’s recusal obligations, and Dr. Fitzgerald has since also divested of these newly acquired potentially conflicting publicly traded stock holdings.”

Click here to read the Politico report.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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