Andrew Cuomo Under Federal Criminal Investigation Over Alleged Lies to Congress on Nursing Home Deaths

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo—once hailed as a national leader during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic—is now at the center of a federal criminal investigation for allegedly making false statements to Congress regarding the nursing home death toll in New York during his tenure. According to a report that appeared on Tuesday in  The New York Post, the probe was launched approximately one month ago by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., in the wake of new evidence suggesting that Cuomo may have intentionally misled lawmakers under oath.

The investigation, sparked by a referral from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, represents a significant escalation in the long-simmering controversy surrounding the Cuomo administration’s pandemic-era handling of nursing homes—a scandal that The New York Post has consistently covered with deep scrutiny since it first broke in 2020.

According to the information provided in The New York Post report, the probe centers on Cuomo’s June 11, 2024 testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, during which he categorically denied any involvement in editing or directing the July 6, 2020, audit from the New York State Department of Health. That report controversially undercounted the number of COVID-related deaths in the state’s senior care facilities by as much as 46%, according to findings by the congressional committee.

Cuomo testified that he had not drafted, reviewed, or consulted on the report, nor did he direct staff to do so. However, emails and internal communications obtained by congressional investigators—and subsequently shared with the Department of Justice—allegedly contradict his sworn testimony. The documentation reportedly includes Cuomo’s handwritten edits, as well as staff communications referencing his direct input.

“This wasn’t just political spin—it was a concerted effort to rewrite the history of a tragedy,” House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told The New York Post. “The evidence points to a deliberate attempt to cover up the scale of the disaster in New York’s nursing homes, and now, finally, there may be consequences.”

Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi responded to The New York Post’s inquiries by dismissing the investigation as politically motivated. “We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now?” he said. “The answer is obvious: This is lawfare and election interference—plain and simple.”

Azzopardi insisted the former governor testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events that occurred four years prior and suggested the probe’s timing—amid Cuomo’s current frontrunner status in the New York City mayoral race—is not coincidental. “This was all transparently political from the start,” he added.

But critics and victims’ advocates are pushing back hard on that narrative, arguing that justice delayed should not be justice denied.

For the families of New Yorkers who died in senior care facilities due to Cuomo’s infamous March 25, 2020 directive—which forced nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients—the investigation is a long-awaited step toward accountability.

The New York Post interviewed Vivian Zayas, cofounder of Voices for Seniors, whose mother, Ana Martinez, died of COVID after a stay in a West Islip nursing home. Zayas described the investigation as a “long overdue victory for nursing home families.”

“Thank God our fight has not been in vain,” Zayas told The Post. “The evidence paints a damning picture of a leader more concerned with image than integrity. Grieving families have waited long enough.”

Her group reportedly sent three letters to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging criminal prosecution.

Daniel Arbeeny, whose father Norman died of COVID in a Brooklyn facility, echoed those sentiments. “Cuomo should be held accountable. It’s that simple,” he told The New York Post. “He forced nursing homes to take back infected patients. Thousands died. Now we need to know if he lied to cover it up.”

Cuomo’s controversial nursing home policy, issued in late March 2020, came as hospitals in New York were overwhelmed with COVID patients. The order, which was only rescinded on May 10, 2020, directed that recovering COVID patients be admitted or readmitted to elder care facilities, regardless of their infectious status—a move widely criticized for introducing the virus into vulnerable populations.

At the time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had already acknowledged asymptomatic spread as a risk, and The New York Post was among the earliest media outlets to sound the alarm on the dangers this policy posed.

Despite mounting public backlash, Cuomo’s July 2020 DOH report downplayed the consequences of the order. He later told lawmakers he didn’t “recall” even seeing the report before publication—an assertion now challenged by documentary evidence.

The investigation comes at a precarious moment for Cuomo, who has been mounting a political comeback and is widely seen as the leading Democratic candidate in the upcoming New York City mayoral election. The prospect of a criminal indictment could seriously complicate his campaign—or, paradoxically, further galvanize supporters who view him as a victim of partisan attacks.

Still, as The New York Post report noted, public opinion may shift as more evidence surfaces. With federal investigators now reportedly examining whether Cuomo’s statements to Congress meet the threshold for criminally false testimony, the former governor may soon be fighting not just for political resurrection—but for his legal freedom.

For years, Cuomo has dodged accountability for what many viewed as a catastrophic failure of leadership, especially regarding the safety of the state’s most vulnerable citizens during the height of the pandemic. Now, as The New York Post reported, the Justice Department’s investigation signals that those days of impunity may be coming to an end.

“The wheels of justice are finally beginning to turn,” Voices for Seniors posted on X. “This investigation is not just justified—it’s overdue.”

According to the report in The New York Post, Cuomo’s notes also include edits that downplayed the state’s responsibility. For example, he replaced the word “death” with more ambiguous language describing the timeline between infection and fatality, and added commentary suggesting the virus was already rampant in nursing homes by the time the state reversed its March 25, 2020, mandate.

That mandate, widely criticized as reckless, forced nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients without testing, a policy that experts say accelerated the spread of the virus among vulnerable populations. It was only rescinded on May 10, 2020, weeks after multiple warnings about asymptomatic transmission had been publicized—warnings that The New York Post had been reporting on since early April 2020.

The probe, spearheaded by Jeanine Pirro, carries additional weight given her public history with Cuomo. A former Fox News host and Republican candidate for New York attorney general, Pirro ran against Cuomo in 2006 and has remained an outspoken critic ever since. In a 2021 Fox News segment, Pirro lambasted Cuomo, saying: “You cannot escape the consequences of your intentional and reckless acts… You cannot escape your intentional coverup.”

She went as far as to suggest that manslaughter or negligent homicide charges should be considered for Cuomo’s COVID-era decisions—a sentiment that now echoes within the halls of the Department of Justice, which has yet to comment publicly but is believed to be pursuing criminal charges for false statements to Congress, according to The New York Post.

Despite the growing mountain of evidence, Cuomo continues to frame the investigation as politically motivated, dismissing the accusations as “conservative rhetoric” amplified by grieving families and hostile media. Speaking on the “Honestly with Bari Weiss” podcast this week, Cuomo claimed: “When you now go back and look at the facts, everything New York state did followed federal guidance.”

He denied any deception in his congressional testimony, asserting: “I get the politics. I understand why they were doing it… and then it was amplified by the nursing home families who just bought into all this conservative rhetoric.”

Cuomo also took to the airwaves with a new 30-second campaign ad titled “Crisis,” touting his pandemic leadership. The ad credits him with decisive action, including the construction of emergency hospitals and coordination of first responders—portraying him as the voice of reason amid chaos.

But as The New York Post report pointed out, the timing of the ad—just one day before news of the DOJ investigation broke—raises eyebrows, particularly as Cuomo seeks to rewrite his COVID-era record ahead of the election.

Cuomo’s rivals in the NYC mayoral race wasted no time responding to the revelations. Democratic Socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, currently polling second, condemned both Cuomo and the Trump administration in a statement that tried to play both sides: “Andrew Cuomo’s career has been defined by corruption and deceit… But Donald Trump cannot be trusted to pursue justice.”

Comptroller Brad Lander, also running for mayor, took a sharper jab on social media: “New Yorkers can’t afford four more years of a compromised mayor kissing Trump’s ass.”

Brooklyn State Sen. Zellnor Myrie added: “We cannot trade one compromised mayor for another.”

Yet as The New York Post report observed, none of Cuomo’s opponents directly addressed the substance of the charges—instead, they focused on political optics, further stressing how volatile the issue has become in a city still scarred by the pandemic.

Outside the political bubble, families who lost loved ones in nursing homes during the pandemic remain focused on one thing: justice.

Daniel Arbeeny, co-founder of the We Care Memorial Wall told The Post: “Cuomo should be held accountable. He forced nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients, and thousands died. We need to know if he was lying to cover it up.”

For Cuomo, the stakes could not be higher. If federal prosecutors determine he knowingly gave false testimony to Congress, he could face felony charges, a potential prison sentence, and the collapse of his political comeback. For the families who have fought tirelessly for answers, as reported by The New York Post, the investigation represents the first tangible step toward long-awaited accountability.

As the criminal probe unfolds, so too does a broader question: What price, if any, will be paid by a leader whose decisions may have cost thousands of lives—and who allegedly tried to conceal the true toll from the public?