Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is under fire again after a Republican-led House subcommittee referred Cuomo to the Justice Department after he was accused of lying to Congress about a report on his involvement in nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, who leads the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, signed the referral that accuses Cuomo of engaging in a “conscious, calculated effort” to avoid responsibility for how nursing home deaths were accounted for in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The referral letter claims that Cuomo, who held a behind-closed-doors meeting with the subcommittee, didn’t review a State Health Department report that blamed him for those deaths.
Reports say that Cuomo reportedly reviewed the reports from his state’s health department and wrote parts of early drafts in emails.
But Cuomo has said he doesn’t recollect such a thing.
“This taxpayer-funded farce is an illegal use of Congress’s investigative authority,” said Richard Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo. “The governor said he didn’t recall because he didn’t recall. The committee lied in their referral just as they have been lying to the public and the press.”
This comes as Cuomo has surfaced as a top name for next year’s New York City mayoral contest.
It’s unclear whether current Mayor Eric Adams will run again as he’s recently been indicted by a grand jury on five counts of bribery and corruption, which includes soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.
Cuomo resigned as governor in August 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, which he still denies.