House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced on Monday that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) has been referred to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for “making false statements to Congress” regarding the “COVID-19 nursing home disaster and the ensuing cover-up” in the state of New York.
“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 press release. “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,” Comer added. “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.”
The House Oversight Committee claimed that “overwhelming evidence” documented by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic indicated that the former Democrat governor “reviewed, edited, and even drafted” sections of a New York State Department of Health report from July of 2020 that “low-balled nursing home fatalities and blamed nursing home staff for causing excess COVID-19 deaths.”
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In a Tuesday letter to Bondi, Comer explained that the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic previously referred Cuomo in October of 2024 for “making criminally false statements” to Congress. Comer claimed that the Biden-Harris administration seemingly “ignored” the criminal referral “despite clear facts and evidence.” As a result, Comer requested that Bondi review the criminal referral and “take appropriate action.”
In Tuesday’s press release, the House Oversight Committee said, “Evidence and witness testimony gathered suggest Mr. Cuomo knowingly and willfully made false statements to the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on numerous occasions about material aspects of New York’s COVID-19 nursing home disaster and the ensuing cover-up.”
According to the House Oversight Committee, the former Democrat governor’s administration ordered nursing homes to admit patients exposed to COVID-19, which led to the “most vulnerable population” being “recklessly exposed” to COVID-19. The committee noted that New York State Attorney General Letitia James claimed that Cuomo’s administration “undercounted the total number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent,” leading to a congressional investigation.
The House Oversight Committee claimed that during his testimony to Congress, Cuomo “made false statements about his involvement in and knowledge of the drafting of the July 6 Report.”
