Cuomo personally altered report that lowballed COVID nursing-home deaths, emails show – contradicting his claim to Congress
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo personally altered a state review that lowballed the nursing home COVID-19 death count, emails detailed in a new report show – a revelation that directly contradicts his claims he had nothing to do with it.
Emails and congressional documents undercut Cuomo's defiant assertion during a summer congressional grilling that he never saw or even had any memory of the state Health Department report, the New York Times first reported .
"Governor's edits are attached for your review," Cuomo's assistant wrote to the then-governor's senior staff in June 2020, the Times report states.
Cuomo wasn't sworn in under oath for his closed-door testimony this year, but was told that he could face criminal prosecution if he knowingly made false statements, according to a transcript.
Family members of seniors who died in nursing-homes saw the emails as proof that Cuomo not only made decisions that killed their loved ones, but also lied about it.
"Cuomo lied before Congress," said Tracey Alvino, director of Voices for Seniors, whose father died from COVID in a Long Island nursing home. "It's a crime. It's proven by the emails.
"Absolutely, he should be prosecuted. I would love to see him in an orange jumpsuit."
The ex-governor's controversial actions during the pandemic's early days in 2020, especially an order to send senior citizens with COVID into nursing homes, have been blamed for potentially causing as many as 9,000 excess deaths.
Cuomo later admitted to instructing his secretary to write an email to his inner circle referring to the March directive as " the great debacle ."
His role in a July 2020 state Department of Health report that undercounted nursing-home deaths has been characterized as nothing less than a " cover-up " by a US House committee.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic alleged Cuomo's office "edited" the report, but the emails obtained by the Times suggest his role was even more hands-on.
He personally inserted text blaming employees and visiting family and friends at nursing homes for spreading COVID and contributing to deaths, the Times report states.
Cuomo, during private questioning by House members in June, claimed he did not review a draft of the nursing-home death report before it was released.
He said he didn't recall reviewing, editing or speaking about the report before it was issued July 7, 2020, according to a transcript.
And none of the emails detailed in the Times report were actually written by Cuomo, who reputedly doesn't use email.
Cuomo's repeated attempts to deflect blame during a Sept. 10 Capitol Hill hearing led Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) to deem him a "lying sack of s—t."
Vivian Zayas, co-founder of Voice for Seniors and whose mom, Ana Martinez, died after contracting COVID in a Long Island nursing home, attended the House hearing.
She said Cuomo "absolutely lied."
"He said he had nothing to do with the report," she said.
"If he lied to Congress, he committed a crime. He should definitely be investigated.
"We're going to see this through to the end. Cuomo needs to be held accountable."
Cuomo's spokesman Rich Azzopardi, in a response to the emails detailed in the Times, argued that staff spread COVID in the nursing homes.
"Governor Cuomo was fully cooperative with the committee over two separate days, relayed everything he remembered about events that happened four years ago in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic and nothing this MAGA committee has uncovered undermines that New York followed [then-President Donald] Trump's CDC nursing home policies or the DOH report's conclusion that COVID was spread in nursing homes by asymptomatic staff," Azzopardi said in a statement.
Supporters of Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace in August 2021 amid a slew of sexual misconduct accusations, have recently been " spreading the word " that he's running for mayor of New York City as scandals surround Eric Adams.
Alvino said she hoped the emails would, at the very least, kill Cuomo's political career.
"Cuomo was derelict in his duties," she said. "My father was killed. He's too dangerous to be in office."
