House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., referred former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to President Donald Trump’s Justice Department for criminal prosecution.
Cuomo – the Democratic scion now considered the current frontrunner in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary in June – was first referred to the Biden Justice Department for criminal prosecution in October 2024. Former Rep. Brad Wenstrup, then-chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, said Cuomo made “multiple criminally false statements” to Congress about his handling of the 2020 COVID-19 nursing home death scandal.
In a new letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday, Comer said “to our knowledge, the Biden Administration ignored this referral despite clear facts and evidence.” He requested that Bondi review the referral and “take appropriate action.”
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“Andrew Cuomo is a man with a history of corruption and deceit, now caught red-handed lying to Congress during the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the COVID-19 nursing home tragedy in New York,” Comer said in a statement Monday. “This wasn’t a slip-up – it was a calculated cover-up by a man seeking to shield himself from responsibility for the devastating loss of life in New York’s nursing homes. Let’s be clear: lying to Congress is a federal crime. Mr. Cuomo must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The House Oversight Committee is prepared to fully cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into Andrew Cuomo’s actions and ensure he’s held to account.”
Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Cuomo’s spokesman, Richard Azzopardi, dismissed Comer’s letter as “nothing more than a meritless press release that was nonsense last year and is even more so now.”
“As the DOJ constantly reminds people, this kind of transparent attempt at election interference and law-fare violates their own policies,” Azzopardi said. “Referrals like these – which have been also made against Planned Parenthood, Hillary Clinton and Anthony Fauci – don’t have to be resubmitted with a new administration, so the only point to doing this is politics.”
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The Cuomo administration issued a directive on March 25, 2020, mandating that nursing homes admit or re-admit potentially COVID-19 positive patients “while simultaneously prohibiting nursing homes from testing these patients before admission or re-admission,” Wenstrup wrote to former Attorney General Merrick Garland in October. The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) issued a subsequent report on July 6, 2020, titled “Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis.” The report alleged nursing home staff – not the March 25 directive – caused excess COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
Comer said witness testimony and new documents revealed in the select subcommittee’s referral showed Cuomo “personally drafted and edited portions of this purportedly independent and peer-reviewed report.”
New York state Attorney General Letitia James said in a January 2021 investigative report of her own that the Cuomo administration may have undercounted the total number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50%
The select subcommittee launched its investigation in May 2023. It issued a subpoena for Cuomo’s testimony in March 2024 after months of delays.
Cuomo sat for a transcribed interview on June 11, 2024. He later testified in front of the select subcommittee on Sept. 10, 2024.
Wenstrup noted that Cuomo claimed he was neither involved in the drafting nor the review of the July 6 report. Cuomo also testified that he did not have any discussions about the July 6 Report being peer-reviewed and that he did not know whether the July 6 report was reviewed by persons outside the NYSDOH. On all three accounts, Wenstrup said documents obtained by the select subcommittee demonstrate Cuomo’s statements to be false.
It’s unclear if the Justice Department, now under Trump’s control, will pursue action against Cuomo. Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ on Tuesday for comment.
The DOJ motioned to dismiss an indictment brought under Biden against current New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A judge agreed to throw out the case with prejudice earlier this month. Adams is running as an independent in the mayoral primary.
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