GOP Lawmaker Asks Justice Dept. to Prosecute Ex-NY Gov. Cuomo
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has officially referred former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to the Justice Department under President Donald Trump, seeking criminal prosecution.
Cuomo, who is currently leading in the polls for the June Democratic primary for New York City mayor, was previously referred to the Justice Department during the Biden administration back in October 2024. That initial referral came from then-Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), who chaired the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Wenstrup accused Cuomo of giving “multiple criminally false statements” to Congress about how he managed nursing home fatalities during the height of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020.
In a letter dated Monday and addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Comer wrote that “to our knowledge, the Biden Administration ignored this referral despite clear facts and evidence.” He called on Bondi to revisit the case 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 Monday statement to Fox News. “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.”
Comer further emphasized: “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.”
In response to Fox News’ request for comment, Cuomo spokesperson Richard Azzopardi dismissed Comer’s referral as “nothing more than a meritless press release that was nonsense last year and is even more so now.”
Azzopardi added, “As the DOJ constantly reminds people, this kind of transparent attempt at election interference and lawfare violates their own policies. Referrals like these – which have been also made against Planned Parenthood, Hillary Clinton and Anthony Fauci – don’t have to be resubmitted with a new administration, so the only point to doing this is politics.”
According to Wenstrup’s original letter to former Attorney General Merrick Garland in October, the Cuomo administration issued a directive on March 25, 2020, instructing nursing homes to admit or re-admit patients regardless of their COVID-19 status. The directive also prohibited these facilities from testing patients before admission.
Later, on July 6, 2020, the New York State Department of Health released a report titled “Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis.” The report suggested that the surge in nursing home deaths was mainly the result of infected staff, not the March directive.
Comer pointed to sworn testimony and newly surfaced documents that indicate Cuomo “personally drafted and edited portions of this purportedly independent and peer-reviewed report.”
A separate investigation in January 2021, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, concluded that the Cuomo administration may have undercounted nursing home COVID-19 deaths by as much as 50%.
The House Select Subcommittee formally launched its investigation in May 2023 and, following significant delays, subpoenaed Cuomo in March 2024. The former governor sat for a transcribed interview on June 11, 2024, and later appeared before the panel on September 10, 2024.
During his appearance, Cuomo stated he had no role in writing or reviewing the July report, was not involved in discussions about its peer review status, and didn’t know whether it had been reviewed externally.
However, Wenstrup asserted that documents obtained by the subcommittee directly contradict Cuomo’s claims, suggesting that his testimony was inaccurate.
At this time, it remains uncertain whether the Trump-era Justice Department will act on the referral, Fox News reported.