GOP-led House panel to refer Andrew Cuomo to DOJ for possible prosecution: report
A Republican-led House subcommittee reportedly plans to refer former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) to the Justice Department to face possible criminal charges on allegations he lied to lawmakers about his role in reporting on COVID-19 nursing home deaths.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic plans to accuse Cuomo of engaging in a “conscious, calculated effort” to duck responsibility over his handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, The New York Times reported Wednesday night. The referral was expected to be delivered to federal authorities on Thursday.
The referral is based on Cuomo's testimony from behind closed doors in which he said he had not reviewed state health officials' report that deflected blame for nursing home deaths in the early days of the pandemic. The Times reported last month that Cuomo not only reviewed the report, he wrote early drafts of it.
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Cuomo once touted his administration's response to the pandemic, calling New York's battle against the virus a success compared to other states.
Cuomo said that “as a percentage of nursing home deaths,” New York was “all the way at the bottom of the list of states.”
However, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity has found that New York was "among the poorest-performing states — "with more than 12% of its long-term care population succumbing to the virus."
Cuomo's legal team reportedly fired off a letter to the Justice Department demanding an investigation into whether the subcommittee abused its power.
Cuomo began his career in politics as a New York City prosecutor and later served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001. He was elected New York attorney general in 2006 and held the position until he won the election for governor in 2011. Cuomo left office facing accusations of sexual harassment in August 2021.