Secretary of State Andrew Cuomo Melissa DeRosa sought to retract an earlier acknowledgment that the state had deliberately withheld COVID-19 nursing homes, and insisted on Friday that the governor’s office was “comprehensive and transparent” in responding to record requests of the Trump administration’s Department of Justice.
According to DeRosa, a phone call with Democratic lawmakers in New York on Thursday said Cuomo’s government feared the data on COVID-19 deaths “could be used against us” by the Justice Department amid the federal investigation into four states regarding nursing have been instituted. domestic deaths, including New York.
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‘We were in a position where we were not sure whether what we would give to the Department of Justice, or what we would give to you, what we were starting to say, would be used against us while we were not. sure whether there will be an investigation, “DeRosa told lawmakers, according to the New York Post.
But on Friday, DeRosa tried to clarify her comments, saying she “explained that when we received the DOJ investigation, we had to temporarily set aside the Legislature’s request.”
“We informed the houses about this at the time,” DeRosa said in a statement posted on Twitter by Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Cuomo. ‘We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to focus our resources immediately on the second wave and vaccine deployment.
“As I said during a call with lawmakers, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would like. But we are committed to being better partners going forward, as we have the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy. if possible during the pandemic. ”
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The statement did little to quell the anger of Republican lawmakers, some of whom are now facing criminal charges against Cuomo and top staff for their mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rep. Tom Reed, RN.Y., told Maria Bartiromo of FOX Business on Friday that he would file a criminal complaint with local and federal law enforcement for DeRosa’s arrest.
DeRosa’s admission to the bombings also sparked outrage over an earlier discovery by New York City Attorney General Letitia James, who said in late January that an investigation by her office had revealed that Cuomo’s government the COVID-19 death rate associated with nursing homes counted by as much as 50%. .
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On Wednesday, the state revealed that the number of deaths was actually 15,049 residents in elderly care facilities (nursing homes and care / adult care facilities) – almost 10,000 more than the State Health Department reported on January 27, 2021 – according to a letter from the state health commissioner, dr. Howard Zucker, who was sent to the Senate Democrats.