NEW YORK — A House subcommittee probing the governmental response to the pandemic will allege former Gov. Andrew Cuomo made false statements to Congress and refer criminal charges to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The referral centers around Cuomo’s statements to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic about his involvement in the editing or reviewing of a controversial July 2020 report on Covid deaths of nursing home residents.
“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, the Ohio Republican who chairs the panel, wrote in the 107-page referral to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The Department of Justice should consider Mr. Cuomo’s prior allegedly wrongful conduct when evaluating whether to charge him for the false statements described in the attached.”
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi accused the panel of a “taxpayer-funded farce” and misusing its investigative authority.
He added the committee has “no basis for this pre-election MAGA exercise and affirmatively chose to act unethically in order to help their masters score cheap political points.”
Earlier Wednesday, an attorney for the ex-governor filed his own criminal referral to the Department of Justice that accused the House panel of “the misuse of government resources and the invasion of state prerogatives.”
The House panel’s referral comes at a sensitive moment for Cuomo, who has been considering a political comeback.
The former governor has not ruled out a bid for New York City mayor as incumbent Democrat Eric Adams is fighting federal corruption charges.
Cuomo resigned from office in August 2021 after a report from state Attorney General Letitia James determined he sexually harassed 11 women. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Polls have shown Cuomo, who retains high name recognition, competitive in a Democratic mayoral primary.
But Cuomo’s critics on the left and right believe his Covid record makes him vulnerable with voters.
Cuomo became a national celebrity for his initial handling of the pandemic and his televised press conference became appointment viewing for homebound New Yorkers.
His nursing home policies came under scrutiny after the state Department of Health issued a March 2020 order that the facilities not turn away Covid-positive patients amid concerns hospitals would fill with sick people.
As criticism mounted into the spring and summer of 2020, state health officials issued a report that tallied nursing home residents’ fatalities. A separate assessment by James’ office in January 2021 later determined the Cuomo administration significantly undercounted deaths of people who initially became sick with Covid in nursing homes and died.
Cuomo told House investigators in June he did not view the July 2020 report.
“I did not,” Cuomo said in closed-door testimony in June. “Maybe it was in the inbox, but I did not.”
He later added he did “not recall reviewing” or seeing it.
“This is a joke — the governor said he didn’t recall because he didn’t recall,” Azzopardi said. “The committee lied in their referral just as they have been lying to the public and the press.”
The referral from the subcommittee includes testimony of former Cuomo advisers who told investigators he was involved in the report’s editing before it was publicly released.
And days before the July report was released, a Cuomo aide emailed: “Governor’s edits are attached for your review.”
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