(GNB Desk): The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn and the FBI have begun a preliminary investigation into the way New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration handled data about Covid-19 nursing home deaths, The Albany Times Union first reported Wednesday.
After early praise for his leadership when New York became the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, the governor is now dealing with accusations of underreporting nursing home deaths.
In recent weeks, the administration revealed that 15,000 long-term care residents have died, up from the 8,500 previously disclosed.
According to ABC News, subpoenas have been issued although the investigation is in its early stage.
The FBI declined to comment on the matter with ABC, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
“As we publicly said, DOJ has been looking into this for months. We have been cooperating with them and we will continue to,” a senior advisor for the governor, Rich Azzopardi, said Wednesday night.
Azzopardi did not disclose whether any members of the administration have been interviewed or if they have been served with any subpoenas.
John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, on Wednesday afternoon said he could not “confirm or deny” whether the office has initiated an investigation.
Last month, the office of Attorney General Letitia James issued a scathing report that concluded the practice may have increased the risk of COVID-19 infections at the congregate facilities and that Cuomo’s administration had delayed reporting that thousands of additional nursing home residents died at hospitals after being infected in their residential facilities, Times Union reported.
And last week, Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s top aide, said that the state held off on releasing the fuller death count in August because of fears that President Donald Trump would use the information against Cuomo.
On Monday, the governor acknowledged that “things should have been done differently” and insisted that “lessons were learned.”
Democratic state Senate leadership in New York is taking steps to remove Cuomo’s emergency powers bestowed at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, an atypical intraparty move against the governor amid increasing criticism on the nursing home issue.
State lawmakers have long discussed curtailing the governor’s powers but have perceived a political opening as the criticism mounts, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
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