(Natural News) The shocking resignation of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) head Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald illustrates once again the rampant corruption not only within the United States federal government, but specifically within our nation's regulatory bodies.

In case you missed it, Politico first broke the story on Dr. Fitzgerald's voluntary removal from the CDC. The former Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner reportedly purchased stocks in tobacco companies almost immediately after being appointed by the Trump administration as head of the CDC – an obvious conflict of interest.

The only reason Dr. Fitzgerald abruptly decided to resign from her post is because she was caught. Pretending to be against tobacco while maintaining financial ties to the tobacco industry is only possible when nobody else knows about it. In this case, Dr. Fitzgerald had no choice but to accept a recusal.

"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," a spokesman from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told Politico about Dr. Fitzgerald's resignation.

"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."

Dr. Fitzgerald was heavily invested in five major tobacco companies prior to being appointed as CDC head

What's interesting about this plea by the HHS in Dr. Fitzgerald's defense is that it makes no mention of her earlier conflicts of interest prior to being appointed as CDC head. Reports indicate that Dr. Fitzgerald had already been under scrutiny for her questionable stock holdings before this latest incident, and that she was actually prevented from testifying before Congress back in January because of them.

Dr. Fitzgerald's stock holdings before accepting her position at the CDC included five major tobacco companies: Reynolds American, British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Philip Morris International, and Altria Group Inc. Because Georgia's ethics rules did not prohibit these holdings, Dr. Fitzgerald didn't run into any problems while maintaining office in the Peach State.