Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing renewed legal trouble as House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) formally referred him to the Department of Justice for potential criminal charges tied to his handling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cuomo, now campaigning for mayor of New York City, is accused of making “criminally false statements” during a congressional investigation into how his administration managed nursing home data in the early months of the pandemic.
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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. “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.”
Comer is urging the DOJ to prosecute Cuomo “to the fullest extent of the law.” The accusations stem from allegations that Cuomo and his administration deliberately underreported the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
According to congressional investigators, Cuomo played a direct role in editing and reviewing a 2020 New York State Department of Health report that downplayed the scale of the crisis. The report is said to have undercounted nursing home deaths by as much as 46 percent.
Investigators claim Cuomo misled Congress about his involvement in drafting the report and the extent of his knowledge during its peer review process. Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, dismissed the referral as politically motivated.
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Speaking to Politico, he said Comer’s actions amounted to “nothing more than a meritless press release that was nonsense last year and is even more so now.” Azzopardi added, “As the DOJ constantly reminds people, this kind of transparent attempt at election interference and lawfare violates their own policies.”
Cuomo rose to national prominence in 2020 for his daily press briefings and firm leadership during the initial outbreak of COVID-19. New York became an early epicenter of the virus, with daily deaths once surpassing 800, and emergency measures considering the use of military hospital beds.
But the former governor’s reputation has since been marred by controversy. In addition to scrutiny over the nursing home data, Cuomo resigned from office in 2021 following multiple allegations of sexual harassment, charges he has denied. The Justice Department has not yet commented on whether it will act on the referral.
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