Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo attacks ‘nuclearized’ probe of COVID response ahead of interview on Capitol Hill
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday to answer questions about his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic – including an infamous order that put infected patients in senior care facilities alongside vulnerable elderly people.
Cuomo entered the O’Neill House Office Building a little before 10 a.m., accompanied by his attorneys and addressed reporters outside before sitting down with members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
“You know, four years ago, the Republican administration accused New York and other Democratic states of mismanaging the COVID situation, specifically mismanaging in nursing homes – and they called for a Department of Justice investigation against just four Democratic states,” Cuomo said.
“It’s ironic today that you hear complaints about the weaponization of the justice system, when they nuclearized the justice system against Democratic states,” he added, pointing to federal investigations that “found no wrongdoing” and claiming his notorious March 25, 2020, nursing home order had “followed the federal guidance.”
“It defies logic for anyone that you would mandate nursing homes, who were not capable of taking these COVID-positive patients because they didn’t have the space to separate them, or they didn’t have the PPE to care for them, or the staffing to care for them at that moment,” House COVID subcommittee member Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said before the hearing.
“What I’m seeking, really, is the answers to what led to it: Was there some type of monetary incentive for hospitals versus nursing homes versus the COVID facilities that were later set up?” she asked. “And we want to know who was responsible for making that decision. And what was the information that they had that led them to that decision?”
“Even when you had US Navy [USNS] Comfort [hospital] ship and you had South Beach Psychiatric Center on Staten Island, a makeshift hospital that was set up for COVID patients, even when you had the Javits Center set up, they still continued this deadly mandate,” Malliotakis stressed.
“I think that we’ll have a lot more clarity as to what led to that deadly mandate that thousands of seniors died,” she concluded. “The difference is that CDC guidance had made a recommendation that certainly was not a mandate.”
The Justice Department did not recommend Cuomo for prosecution based on the March 25, 2020, “must admit” order after looking into the decision – but reports from the New York Bar Association and Empire Center for Public Policy determined that it led to hundreds of additional deaths.
New York Attorney General Letitia James also revealed in January 2021 at the end of an investigation that the Cuomo administration undercounted by more than 50% the number of nursing home deaths.
The Department of Health had initially recorded 8,711 deaths, which was later pushed up to more than 13,000, according to James’ report.
The 76-page report surveyed 62 nursing homes that found the state undercounted the fatalities there by an average of 56%.
The following month, his top aide apologized to Democratic lawmakers on a private phone call for withholding the data, saying the administration “froze” in the face of federal prosecutors who could use it “against us.”
The aide, Melissa DeRosa, accused the Trump administration of using the data as “a giant political football” before going on to attack other Democratic governors like Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
Then-President Donald Trump ordered “the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us,” DeRosa told the lawmakers. “And basically, we froze.”
“Because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation,” she added. “That played a very large role into this.”
DeRosa will appear in the coming weeks for a separate transcribed interview with the House COVID subcommittee, a spokeswoman for the panel told The Post.
Another committee spokesperson previously revealed that the former Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, Howard Zucker, testified to the panel that DeRosa exercised a “critical” role in preparing and carrying out the state’s must-admit order.
Her attorney, Gregory Morvillo, has previously denied her involvement.
“Melissa played no role in the drafting or implementation of the March 25 guidance,” Morvillo said in a December statement following Zucker’s testimony.
“What we understand Dr. Zucker did say is that Melissa, as secretary to the governor, played a critical role in COVID response, which is true.”
More than 80,000 New Yorkers died of COVID-19 from the beginning of the pandemic to May 2023, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data show.
House COVID subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) pledged in a statement that “former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will be held to account in front of Congress for the deadly pandemic-era nursing home policies issued under his watch.”
“This transcribed interview before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic will delve deeper into the March 25th order than any investigation has before and hopefully provide the answers that so many devastated New Yorkers have been desperately seeking since 2020,” Wenstrup said.
“The victims’ families deserve accountability — not only for the disastrous ‘must-admit’ policies, but for the cover up that ensued,” he added.
Wenstrup also said the transcribed interview would delve into a $5 million book deal that Cuomo inked during the pandemic.
The COVID panel had threatened to subpoena Cuomo last year for testimony – and later made good on the threat before negotiating a time and place for him to answer lawmakers’ questions.
“It was inappropriate to be worried about a book deal,” Malliotakis told The Post. “And the other thing was the numbers – the numbers that the attorney general found were low-balled to make him continue to look like he was doing a great job in New York when the death count showed otherwise.”
Cuomo resigned in August 2021 after a probe by New York State Attorney General Letitia James concluded he had sexually harassed or mistreated 11 women during his time in office.
Since leaving office, the former governor has reportedly been eyeing a political comeback, with insiders telling The Post recently that he may challenge Eric Adams for New York City mayor in 2025.
