Amid reports of a federal investigation into New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo dealing with COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, Democrats from the New York General Assembly and the Senate have begun to explore the possibility discusses depriving Cuomo of the broad executive assigned to him last March to oversee the state’s COVID-19 response efforts.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Cuomo’s task force COVID-19 to determine if the state deliberately manipulated deaths in nursing homes, two people unfamiliar with the case told the Associated Press. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to discuss the investigation publicly.
It was recently discovered that Cuomo’s administration accounts for 40 percent of the number of COVID-19 patients placed by hospitals.
His administration also underreported the number of deaths in nursing homes by nearly 43 percent, effectively affecting thousands of previously unreported cases.
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Ron Kim, a member of the Democratic Assembly of New York, Ron Kim and eight other Democratic New York lawmakers wrote a letter Tuesday urging members of the Assembly to support a proposal to remove Cuomo from his pandemic-related executive forces to strip, reports CNN.
The letter accuses Cuomo of ‘criminal’ obstruction of justice after Cuomo’s leading aide, Melissa DeRosa, admitted in a private virtual meeting with state lawmakers last week that the state does not have its full COVID-19 death toll from residents of the state’s nursing home. August for fear that then-president Donald Trump would use the information to start a justice department against Cuomo.
In a transcript of DeRosa’s comments from the private meeting, she said: ‘[Trump] started tweeting that we had all been murdered in nursing homes. He starts chasing [New Jersey Governor Phil] Murphy, start chasing [California Governor Gavin] Newsom, start afterwards [Michigan Governor] Gretchen Whitmer. He ordered the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into us. ‘
“And basically we froze,” DeRosa continued, “because then we were in a position where we were not sure or what [numbers] we would give to the Department of Justice or what we give to you … would be used against us. We were not sure if an investigation would be launched. ‘
The letter from members of the Democratic state assembly follows a statement issued by Feb. 12 by 14 Democratic state legislators in New York, which also suggests that Cuomo be stripped of his pandemic-related executive powers.
“It is clear that the extended emergency powers to the Governor are no longer applicable,” the statement read. “Without exception, the New York Constitution calls for the legislature to govern as an equal branch of government.”
The statement signatories noted that although Cuomo’s power to issue prescriptions would expire on April 30, they suggested that fellow senators should recall Cuomo’s powers “as soon as possible”.
Last week, the New York Department of Health records revealed that 9,056 patients recovering from COVID-19 were placed in nursing homes – the department previously reported only 6,327. Around the same time, the Cuomo government also revealed that the number of COVID-19 deaths among long-term care residents was more than 15,000, according to the Associated Press.
After Kim’s Member of the Assembly publicly criticized Cuomo’s handling of deaths in the nursing home The New York Post, Kim alleges that Cuomo called his home and threatened to ruin his career if he did not issue a statement supporting the handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes.
Kim, whose uncle died in a nursing home in 2020 due to a suspected COVID-19 case, told the publication: “There is no undoing here. They have blood on their hands. We are talking about his record of achievements in the last ten months. “
On Wednesday morning, Cuomo’s senior adviser Rich Azzopardi said in a statement: “Kim’s claim that the governor said he ‘would destroy him’ is untrue.”
In response to complaints about the handling of COVID-19 nursing homes by its administration, Cuomo told reporters: “Afterwards, should we have given more priority to complying with information requests? Yes, and that’s what created the gap. Just want to make sure people know these are the facts: everything that could have been done has been done. ‘
Newsweek reached Cuomo’s office for comment.