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Legal experts warn that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s suspected undercoverage of nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic could rise to the level of a criminal offense.
Cuomo found himself at the center of a federal investigation into whether his administration was seeking to hide the true toll of the pandemic.
The New York Post reported earlier this month that Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s senior aide, told lawmakers he withheld the numbers for fear they would be “used against us.”
FILE: Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a press conference amid medical supplies at the Jacob Javits Center which will house a temporary hospital in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City.
(AP)
In an editorial for the Wall Street Journal, John B. Daukas, who served as Acting U.S. Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, wrote that the confession reported by DeRosa that the Cuomo administration ” was not just negligent, but intentional and possibly criminal. ”
Daukas said many federal laws could apply, noting that the Cuomo administration accused both of making false statements to the federal government and of trying to thwart an investigation.
“While it cannot be proven that the Cuomo administration knowingly provided false information to the courts and to the (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), New York’s willful failure to provide information may in itself constitute an offense. criminal, especially if the intention was to thwart a federal investigation – which, after all, is exactly what Ms. DeRosa allegedly said the administration had done, ”Daukas wrote.
And on Saturday, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said DeRosa’s admission to lawmakers – if true – was a potential obstruction to the justice charge. Under federal law, Jarrett noted, if a government official forges or conceals evidence to avoid triggering an investigation (or acts out of fear that such an investigation could take place), that official is still guilty under the law. obstruction. ”
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The retirement home scandal dealt a heavy blow to the governor’s high favorability. At the start of the pandemic, the governor took to television for daily briefings that were fatherly, almost philosophical, and also sharply critical of the Trump administration. They have become staple TV channels across the country, helped in part by his CNN news anchor brother.
Despite his state’s death toll – more than 46,000 people in New York state have died from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University – Cuomo’s popularity has skyrocketed. In October, Cuomo won a first round of victory by publishing a book called “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
But the issue of retirement homes has exploded on the political scene with two recent revelations. First, the state’s Democratic attorney general berated the Cuomo administration for downplaying the death toll in nursing homes by excluding some deaths from the tally. Cuomo’s administration then revealed that at least 15,000 people living in long-term care facilities had died from COVID-19, nearly double the number originally revealed by Cuomo.
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“The history of nursing homes has really exposed a lot of questions about his leadership style and his leadership success during COVID,” said Christina Greer, professor of political science at Fordham University. “The governor wrote a book touting his accomplishments, and we don’t know if we’re halfway through the pandemic.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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