By Steve Neavling
House Republicans have referred former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo to the Justice Department, claiming he misled Congress about his role in a report on nursing home deaths tied to covid-19, The Washington Post reports.
Cuomo previously told the House panel investigating the coronavirus response that he had no involvement in the July 2020 report, which appeared to shift blame for those deaths away from his administration’s policies. However, on Wednesday, the panel’s chairman revealed documents suggesting Cuomo was directly involved in drafting the report and called on the Justice Department to consider prosecuting him for making false statements to Congress.
“Mr. Cuomo provided false statements to the Select Subcommittee in what appears to be a conscious, calculated effort to insulate himself from accountability,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), who leads the House panel, wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. The letter, provided to The Washington Post, includes documents that reportedly show Cuomo directing edits on the report.
“Governor’s edits are attached for your review,” a Cuomo aide wrote in a June 2020 email regarding the draft report, which was obtained by the House panel.
Another document presented to the panel is a draft with handwritten notes, including crossed-out sentences and rewritten text. Former aides told the panel that the handwriting is Cuomo’s.
When asked in a closed-door interview in June whether he was involved “in the drafting of this report in any capacity,” Cuomo responded with a no.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, accused the GOP-led panel of trying to “score cheap political points” by investigating Cuomo and filing a criminal referral just days before the upcoming election.
Azzopardi also pointed to Cuomo’s June closed-door testimony and his September public hearing, where, after initially denying involvement in the report, Cuomo clarified that he did not recall the events from four years prior.
“This is a joke — the Governor said he didn’t recall because he didn’t recall,” Azzopardi commented in a statement.
