A Republican-led House subcommittee investigating the coronavirus pandemic plans to refer former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, to federal prosecutors for potential criminal charges, according to multiple reports.
The House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic plans to issue its recommendation tomorrow, sources told The New York Times and CNN.
The referral will accuse the former governor of lying when he testified before the subcommittee about nursing home deaths in the early days of the pandemic. During the testimony, Cuomo said he didn’t recall viewing a report before its release that undercounted the number of seniors who died in New York facilities.
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But emails obtained by the Times in September appeared to show that Cuomo was not only aware of the report before its release, but helped draft portions of it.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, accused the Republicans of being misleading about their accusations of lying—“the Governor said he didn’t recall because he didn’t recall,” Azzopardi said in an email to the Daily Beast.
Azzopardi said the counsel for the subcommittee’s Republicans know “there is no basis for this pre-election MAGA exercise and affirmatively chose to act unethically in order to help their masters score cheap political points.
Azzopardi also questioned the timing of the referral, taking place only days before the election. “The partisan rancor and opportunism is clearly on display for the world to see,” he told the Daily Beast.
The referral was only signed by Republicans on the subcommittee.
No Democrats, including ranking member Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA), signed the letter. Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), the subcommittee’s chairman, did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Meanwhile, attorneys for Cuomo submitted their own letter to the Justice Department on Wednesday, accusing the subcommittee of misusing government funds, exceeding its jurisdiction, and colluding with a Fox News weather correspondent whose husband is a named plaintiff in a lawsuit against Cuomo.
Before he stepped down over sexual misconduct allegations in 2021, Cuomo emerged as one of the most visible government officials during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic as his daily press briefings became a television spectacle to millions of New Yorkers stuck at home.
A feud quickly grew between Cuomo and then-President Donald Trump, two swaggering Queens-born politicians both attempting to get a handle on the pandemic.
However, Cuomo’s early pandemic goodwill evaporated as reports began to emerge about deaths in nursing homes and senior care facilities—which were required by order to accept COVID-positive patients discharged from hospitals.
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office later released a report that revealed Cuomo’s administration significantly undercounted the number of seniors who died as a result of the policy by as much as 50%.
Cuomo already faced a Justice Department probe into the deaths in 2021, which was dropped later that year.
