The Justice Department is investigating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after a criminal referral from House Republicans over allegations that he lied to Congress about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and nursing home patients.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. is conducting the inquiry into Cuomo, according to several media reports. His spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, said they were not informed of any investigation taking place.
“We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now?” he told the New York Times. “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.”
Cuomo is currently the frontrunner to become the next Mayor of New York City, a post currently held by Eric Adams (D), whose criminal case the Trump administration controversially ended. Adams is running for reelection but unlikely to win because of the federal corruption charges and widespread discontent with his management of the Big Apple.
In April, House Republicans renewed the referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi after the Biden administration ignored the referral last year. The House Covid-19 Subcommittee previously investigated Cuomo’s involvement in New York’s directive to send recovering Covid-19 patients back into nursing homes and the state’s coverup of the nursing home deaths it caused.
Cuomo testified behind closed doors to the subcommittee in June and again at a fiery public hearing in September where he adamantly defended his record. He repeatedly accused House Republicans of pushing President Trump’s talking points about the nursing home directive and attempted to shift blame for the nursing home deaths.
The criminal referral accuses Cuomo of making false statements about his role in crafting a July 2020 report that intentionally undercounted New York’s nursing home deaths to coverup the impact of Cuomo’s directive. Cuomo falsely testified last year that he had no involvement in drafting or reviewing the report, and falsely said he had no discussions about it being peer reviewed.
The Covid-19 subcommittee cited documents in its possessions and testimony from former aides to substantiate its accusations that Cuomo lied under oath.
“Mr. Cuomo provided false statements to the Select Subcommittee in what appears to be a conscious, calculated effort to insulate himself from accountability. The Department of Justice should consider Mr. Cuomo’s prior allegedly wrongful conduct when evaluating whether to charge him for the false statements described in the attached,” the referral reads.
Cuomo’s actions during the Covid-19 pandemic initially drew fawning praise from liberals until the nursing home scandal caught up with him. He resigned in disgrace as Governor of New York in 2021 over allegations of sexual misconduct, which Cuomo has vigorously denied in the years since.
New York’s Mayoral primary is taking place in June, with the winner of the Democratic primary almost certain to win the general election. Polls have consistently put Cuomo in the lead ahead of socialist upstart Zohran Mamdani and the rest of the crowded field. It is unclear if the Trump administration’s investigation will impact Cuomo’s standing.
Cuomo has campaigned on his Covid-19 management, even as his opponents hit him on the issue, with the hopes that liberal voters do not care about the scandals clouding Cuomo’s record.