DOJ and FBI Investigating Cuomo's Handling of Nursing Homes

Andrew Cuomo

The FBI and the Brooklyn federal prosecutor’s office have opened an investigation into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes and nursing home death data during the coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple reports.

The probe is examining the Cuomo administration’s actions relating to the nursing homes and other long-term care facilities after thousands of their residents died of COVID-19, reports the New York Post.

Even New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is getting into the act. He called for a blue-ribbon panel to investigate Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes — saying in a new interview that “lives might’ve been saved.”

“This whole thing has to be examined. We need the full truth,” the mayor said in the interview with Bloomberg.

“It’s extraordinarily troubling on a human level because we don’t even know what it would’ve meant — how many lives might’ve been saved if things had been done differently.”

Critics are on solid grounds when they say the Cuomo-directed New York State Health Department’s since-rescinded, March 25 directive for nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients helped spread the disease among highly vulnerable residents.

CNN, where Cuomo's brother, Chris, has a nightly news show, is also turning against the governor.

CNN is reporting:

Cuomo has been pleading with lawmakers for support and even threatening political retribution against Democrats who have criticized him in an aggressive effort to contain political fallout from revelations that his administration had concealed the full extent of nursing home-related deaths during the Covid pandemic.

Describing an alleged exchange with the governor that has not been previously reported, Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim told CNN that he received a call on his cell phone from the governor last week as he was bathing his children at home.

"Gov. Cuomo called me directly on Thursday to threaten my career if I did not cover up for Melissa [DeRosa] and what she said. He tried to pressure me to issue a statement, and it was a very traumatizing experience," Kim said. Cuomo proceeded to tell the assemblyman that "we're in this business together and we don't cross certain lines and he said I hadn't seen his wrath and that he can destroy me," according to Kim... 

DeRosa is a top aide to the governor who came under fire last week after she told state lawmakers in a private virtual meeting that the state had delayed sharing with the legislature the full scope of the Covid-related death toll of New York's nursing home residents because of concerns about a potential federal investigation by the Department of Justice... 

"No man has ever spoken to me like that in my entire life," Kim said of his phone call with Cuomo. "At some point he tried to humiliate me, asking: 'Are you a lawyer? I didn't think so. You're not a lawyer.' It almost felt like in retrospect he was trying to bait me and anger me and say something inappropriate. I'm glad I didn't."

The sharks sense blood in the water. Let the feeding frenzy and the investigations continue. 

-RW