The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about his decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic while serving as governor, a source familiar with the probe confirmed to Fox News.
The New York Times first reported that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington opened the inquiry into Cuomo about a month ago after senior officials in the DOJ demanded an indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams for corruption charges be dismissed.
The DOJ declined to comment to Fox News.
The Trump administration is now in an unusual spot of ending a criminal case against Adams while opening a new case into Adams’ main rival within months of each other.
Cuomo is running in the Democratic primary to serve as the next mayor of New York City, while Adams is seeking re-election as an independent candidate.
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“We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now? The answer is obvious: This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple—something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against,” Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s spokesperson told Fox News. “Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee — but from the beginning this was all transparently political.”
The former governor was grilled by Republican lawmakers last year about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. House Republicans subsequently recommended the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against him. They accused him of intentionally lying to Congress during the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the excessive number of nursing home deaths.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., referred Cuomo to President Donald Trump’s Justice Department for criminal prosecution.
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Cuomo – the Democratic scion now considered the current frontrunner in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary in June – was first referred to the Biden Justice Department for criminal prosecution in October 2024.
Former Rep. Brad Wenstrup, then-chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, said Cuomo made “multiple criminally false statements” to Congress about his handling of the 2020 COVID-19 nursing home death scandal.
Cuomo, who was governor at the time, issued a March 2020 directive that initially barred nursing homes from refusing to accept patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. The directive was aimed at freeing up beds for overwhelmed hospitals.
More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients were released from hospitals into nursing homes under the directive, which was later rescinded amid speculation that it had accelerated outbreaks.
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The eight plaintiffs in the case argued that their loved ones contracted COVID-19 in nursing homes and died as a result of the directive. They accused Cuomo and his administration of being civilly liable for their deaths as well as being liable for failing to accurately report the number of nursing home deaths in New York state that resulted from the virus.
Cuomo has previously said that the directive was based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) guidance at the time.
A report released in March 2022 by the New York state comptroller found Cuomo’s Health Department “was not transparent in its reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes” and it “understated the number of deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%” during some points of the pandemic.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi last month, Comer said “to our knowledge, the Biden Administration ignored this referral despite clear facts and evidence.” He requested that Bondi review the referral and “take appropriate action.”
“Andrew Cuomo is a man with a history of corruption and deceit, now caught red-handed lying to Congress during the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the COVID-19 nursing home tragedy in New York,” Comer said in a statement Monday. “This wasn’t a slip-up – it was a calculated cover-up by a man seeking to shield himself from responsibility for the devastating loss of life in New York’s nursing homes. Let’s be clear: lying to Congress is a federal crime. Mr. Cuomo must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The House Oversight Committee is prepared to fully cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into Andrew Cuomo’s actions and ensure he’s held to account.”
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
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