House COVID panel will refer ex-NY Gov. Cuomo to DOJ for ‘criminally false statements’ about nursing home death report

A US House committee will refer former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to the Department of Justice for making “criminally false statements” about a state audit that undercounted nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Post has learned.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is accusing Cuomo of falsely saying that he was not involved in prompting, drafting or reviewing the July 6, 2020, report, which low-balled the state’s total nursing home COVID death count by 46%, according to a draft of the criminal referral to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Asked whether he drafted, reviewed, discussed or looped in people outside of his administration to “peer-review” the report, Cuomo told the House panel during a June 11 transcribed interview that he had not.

“I did not. Maybe it was in the inbox, but I did not,” Cuomo said when asked whether he reviewed a draft of the report during his transcribed interview.

Cuomo denied during a June 11 transcribed interview that he drafted, reviewed, discussed or looped in people outside of his administration to “peer-review” the report. Bloomberg via Getty Images

But subcommittee staff, in the 104-page referral, presented emails of aides discussing his involvement in editing and reviewing the report, as well as drafts that were confirmed by them to allegedly have the ex-governor’s own chicken scratch in the margins.

Cuomo’s handwriting throughout the documents emphasizes arguments he has made since the disastrous March 25, 2020, directive ordered COVID patients into senior care facilities.

He revoked the order on May 10 after thousands of New Yorkers had been either admitted or readmitted — without requiring testing — to nursing homes.

Cuomo’s handwriting throughout the documents emphasizes arguments he has made since the disastrous March 25, 2020, directive ordered COVID patients into senior care facilities. Annie Wermiel/NY Post

Cuomo’s notes deflect responsibility for the nursing home mandate itself, with one claiming that his administration only learned in May that “asymptomatic people could infect others. However, by that point the disease was already in the nursing homes.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledged the risk of asymptomatic spread six days earlier, though news outlets had been reporting on the phenomenon since early April.

In one draft page, he changed “neither CDC guidance nor the state directive mandated” to “neither CDC guidance nor the state directed.”

Cuomo’s notes deflect responsibility for the nursing home mandate itself, with one claiming that his administration only learned in May that “asymptomatic people could infect others.” AP

Another crosses out “death” and replaces it with the approximate timeline it took for infections to become fatalities.

Cuomo also directed staff to have neighboring states’ nursing home death counts “compared to New York” with the deflated death count using figures of fatalities just inside of the nursing homes.

“New York is 6,600?” he wrote in the margins of a draft page — but more than 9,000 perished when factoring in those who were in hospitals. The final report listed 6,432.

“New York is 6,600?” he wrote in the margins of a draft page — but more than 9,000 perished when factoring in those who were in hospitals. The final report listed 6,432. Gabriella Bass

Farrah Kennedy, an ex-senior staffer to Cuomo, in a transcribed interview with the House COVID panel earlier this month recognized Cuomo’s handwriting and said she “often” had to decipher and transcribe it.

Ex-Cuomo aides Melissa DeRosa and Jim Malatras and New York Department of Financial Services deputy superintendent Gareth Rhodes had earlier told the subcommittee in interviews that a June 7, 2020, email chain worrying about the death count becoming a “great debacle in the history books,” was likely authored by the then-governor through his secretary Stephanie Benton.

New emails disclosed by the committee show a member of the Executive Chamber staff in a June 28, 2020, email chain also wrote that “the Governor handed over edits to the version you asked me to give to him.”

Cuomo’s office sought guidance from Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling and Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, when drafting the report. AP

“Upon closer inspection they aren’t edits I can make,” another staff member responded. “Attached are the governor’s edits.”

New emails disclosed by the subcommittee reveal that Cuomo’s office sought guidance from Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling and Kenneth Raske, president and CEO of the Greater New York Hospital Association.

“Get the Harvard guy[,] dowling[,] and ken Davis [sic] to be the ‘peer review’ experts of the report. Get them the draft now to study,” read a June 30, 2020, email written by Stephanie Benton but dictated by Cuomo, according to a former staffer.

“Documents prove Mr. Cuomo’s testimony to be false,” COVID Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) wrote in a signed cover letter accompanying the criminal referral. Ron Sachs / CNP for NY Post / SplashNews.com

“Ken Raske’s staff and mine can do a complete rewrite [of the Executive Summary] if you wish,” Dowling replied in an email two days later.

“Documents prove Mr. Cuomo’s testimony to be false,” COVID Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) wrote in a signed cover letter accompanying the criminal referral.

Wenstrup’s committee slapped New York Gov. Kathy Hochul with a subpoena to hand over the relevant documents in September — but a whistleblower ended up providing them.

An impeachment report cited in the referral and prepared by the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee also found evidence that Cuomo prompted, reviewed and edited drafts of the report to “combat criticism” and defend his nursing home order.

Cuomo at other points in his June transcribed interview added that he did not “recall” reviewing or seeing the July 2020 nursing home report before its release.

“Mr. Cuomo has no valid legal defense,” the subcommittee’s criminal referral concludes. “Mr. Cuomo did not recant or correct his false statements during his June 11 transcribed interview, despite being given the opportunity to do so, or during the Select Subcommittee’s September 10 hearing.”

“The facts, evidence, and precedent suggest DOJ should proceed with criminal charges against Mr. Cuomo pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for false statements,” it closes.

Trump ally Roger Stone was the most recent figure prosecuted under the same federal statute for making false statements to the House Intelligence Committee as part of its probe into links between the former president’s 2016 campaign and Russia.

Cuomo’s lawyer and spokesperson didn’t immediately return requests for comment.