Report: Cuomo aide says admin ‘froze’ amid federal nursing home probe

ALBANY — A top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo told state lawmakers in a conference call that the administration’s months-long refusal to release full data on COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents was due to Cuomo’s team’s belief that they were facing a politically motivated probe by former President Donald J. Trump’s Justice Department, the New York Post reported Thursday night.

The revelation of the remarks by Cuomo’s secretary Melissa DeRosa prompted fresh demands from lawmakers in both parties for a robust investigation of Cuomo’s stonewalling and possible obstruction of a federal request, and calls from Republicans that the governor should resign or be impeached.

The Post reported that it had obtained a full recording of DeRosa’s meeting with a half-dozen lawmakers earlier this week.

The article quoted DeRosa explaining why Cuomo’s team had rebuffed the Legislature’s request for the complete data a month after the state health department had in early July issued a self-exonerating report, which concluded Cuomo’s March order that care facilities couldn’t turn away COVID-positive residents didn’t play a significant role in the virus’ devastating spread through many of those facilities. (The order was rescinded in May.) That report, however, only counted deaths of residents at the facilities, and not the deaths of those who were shifted to hospitals and then died.

In a statement Friday, DeRosa said her comments were taken out of context by the Post’s story.

“I was explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first. We informed the houses of this at the time,” she said. “We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout. As I said on a call with legislators, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would have liked. But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic.”

But in the meeting, DeRosa made it clear that the administration viewed the federal inquiry as a political attack.

In August, DeRosa told the lawmakers, Trump “starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes. He starts going after (New Jersey Gov. Phil) Murphy, starts going after (California Gov. Gavin) Newsom, starts going after (Michigan Gov.) Gretchen Whitmer” — all Democrats.

And then, she said, Trump “directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us.”

“And basically, we froze,” she told the lawmakers on the call, according to the Post.

“Because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation,” she said. ” … That played a very large role into this.”

DeRosa apologized to the lawmakers — not for the stonewalling itself, but for the political pressure placed on them by the administration’s refusal to provide the data, the Post reported.

“So we do apologize,” she said. “I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.”

The explanation did not go over well with Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, according to the Post’s account.

“I don’t have enough time today to explain all the reasons why I don’t give that any credit at all,” said Gottfried, one of the lawmakers who had demanded the full data in August.

DeRosa’s remarks were contradicted by the fact that reporters and elected officials had begun requesting the full data immediately after the release of the health department’s much-maligned July report.

Cuomo was forced to detail the full tally of nursing home deaths after last month’s release of a scathing report from state Attorney General Letitia James’ office and a subsequent court decision in a legal action brought by the Empire Center, a fiscally conservative think tank, that ordered the administration to hand over the data this week.

The Post’s report unleashed a fresh torrent of criticism from Republicans on the eve of Cuomo’s planned visit to the White House to join other state leaders for a Friday meeting with President Joe Biden, a longtime Cuomo ally.

State Sen. Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, said in a statement that the Post’s report of DeRosa “admitting to a cover-up in hiding the nursing home data sought by the Justice Department and my state legislative colleagues … is shocking. Rather than apologize for the cover-up and any role the Cuomo Administration may have played in the deaths of 15,000 New Yorkers from the coronavirus in nursing homes, Ms. DeRosa instead gave a mea culpa for putting the Democratic legislators in an inconvenient ‘political position.’”  “It’s disgusting and absolutely shameful,” Tedisco said. He demanded state and federal investigations, including the Legislature’s use of its subpoena powers to compel testimony from administration members involved in the decision to hold back the information. He also said lawmakers should immediately strip Cuomo of his emergency powers conferred at the start of the pandemic. “If this information that’s been reported is accurate, then Gov. Cuomo has totally lost the trust of the people he represents and has violated his oath of office,” Tedisco said. “He should then resign or face impeachment and removal from office.”

But other critical comments were posted on social media from Democrats including progressive state lawmakers include Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou and state Sen. Julia Salazar, from the Legislature’s progressive wing.

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi posted a statement on Twitter: “We explained that the Trump administration was in the midst of a politically motivated attempt to blame democratic (sic) states for COVID deaths and that we were cooperating with Federal document productions and that was the priority and now that it is over we can address the state legislature. That said, we were working simultaneously to complete the audit of information they were asking for.”