"He lied to Congress": Rep. Comer submits criminal referral of Andrew Cuomo to DOJ | Law Enforcement Today

ALBANY, NY - Fox News reported that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) has referred former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution.

Cuomo, who is running for mayor of New York City and considered the front runner in that primary taking place in June, was first referred to the DOJ when it was under former President Joe Biden. 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.

In a new letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday, April 21st, 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."

In a statement, Comer said, "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. 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."

Cuomo's spokesperson, Richard Azzopardi dismissed Comer's letter as "nothing more than a meritless press release that was nonsense last year and is even more so now."

Azzopardi said, "As the DOJ constantly reminds people, this kind of transparent attempt at election interference and law-fare violates their own policies. Referrals like these, which have been also made against Planned Parenthood, Hilary Clinton, and Anthony Fauci, don't have to be resubmitted with a new administration, so the only point to doing this is politics."

In 2024, Wenstrup wrote to former Attorney General Merrick Garland saying that on March 25, 2020, the Cuomo administration issued a directive mandating that nursing homes admit or re-admit potentially COVID-19 positive patients while "simultaneously prohibiting nursing homes from testing these patients before admission or re-admission."

He added that the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) issued a subsequent report on July 6, 2020, titles "Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis." The report alleged that nursing home staff, not the March 25th directive, caused excess COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

Comer said witness testimony and new documents revealed in the select subcommittee's referral showed Cuomo "personally drafted and edited portions of this purportedly independent and peer-reviewed report." 

In a January 2021 investigative report of her own, New York Attorney General Letitia James said that the Cuomo administration may have undercounted the total number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent. The select subcommittee launched its investigation in May 2023 and issued a subpoena for Cuomo's testimony in March of 2024 after months of delays.

Cuomo sat for a transcribed interview on June 11, 2024. He later testified in front of the select subcommittee on September 10, 2024. Wenstrup noted that Cuomo claimed he was neither involved in the drafting nor the review of the July 6th report. Cuomo also testified that he did not have any discussions about the July 6th report being peer-reviewed and that he did not know whether the July 6th report was reviewed by persons outside the NYSDOH.

Wenstrup said that documents obtained by the select subcommittee demonstrate Cuomo's statements to be false, on all three accounts. It is unclear if the DOJ, now under Trump's control, will pursue action against Cuomo.