A new report claims that President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) for allegedly lying to Congress regarding the COVID-19 nursing home deaths in New York.
According to Fox News, a source familiar with the Justice Department’s investigation confirmed the probe into the former Democrat governor following a New York Times report that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington launched an investigation to Cuomo roughly a month ago after senior Justice Department officials demanded that corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams be dismissed.
The Trump administration’s reported investigation into Cuomo comes as the former governor is viewed as the frontrunner in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor, while Adams is running for re-election as an independent, according to Fox News.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for the former governor, told Fox News, “We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now? The answer is obvious: This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple—something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against.”
“Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee — but from the beginning this was all transparently political,” Azzopardi added.
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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced last month Cuomo had been referred to the Justice Department for potential criminal prosecution for “making false statements to Congress” pertaining to the “COVID-19 nursing home disaster and the ensuing cover-up” in New York.
At the time, Comer noted that Cuomo had first been referred to the Biden administration’s Justice Department for criminal prosecution last October.
In last month’s announcement, the House Oversight Committee said a report by New York State Attorney General Letitia James indicated that Cuomo’s administration “undercounted the total number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee explained that the report prompted a congressional investigation, during which the former governor allegedly lied in his testimony to Congress.
“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 stated in April’s press release. “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. Let’s be clear: lying to Congress is a federal crime.”
