On "Remnants"

I met Michael Caputo in passing a quarter-century ago, only to see his name reappear in the Russiagate madness. On an upcoming guest essay

On March 20, 2017, then-FBI Director James Comey testified to the House Intelligence Committee that the FBI was investigating “links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government,” prompting Watergate comparisons on every cable channel. Watching, I was dumbfounded when California’s Jackie Speier began pressing Comey on the supposed “tarantula web” of Trump-Russia connections and brought up “Michael Caputo,” a “PR professional” and “conservative radio talk show host” she said worked “to improve Putin’s image” in the United States.

Wait, I thought. I know Michael Caputo! In Moscow in the nineties, he was a known figure in the American aid community and I was the editor of an infamous newspaper, the eXile, that savaged such people. As such, we weren’t exactly pals. But I had him down as a Republican, not a Russian operative. If anything, Speier had it backwards. Caputo did PR work for American advisory organizations that provided not-so-subtle aid to Boris Yeltsin’s 1996 re-election campaign, groups whose efforts were a reason I had trouble getting worked up about alleged Russian interference in 2016.

Some time later, I learned Michael fell ill with cancer as he and his family were being placed in the crosshairs of the Russiagate investigation. We re-connected, and despite the fact that we were political opposites, it was hard not to be troubled by the story you’re about to read. As the incoming administration decides whether or not it wants to pursue investigations into the origins of the Russiagate mania, I hope it considers stories like his. A lot of lives were ruined. Does it make sense to just let it all go?