Hmmmm: DoJ Opens Probe Into Cuomo Over COVID-19 Testimony

Is this a politically motivated prosecution? Or the antidote to a politically motivated non-prosecution?

The New York Times covers it as an example of the former. The Department of Justice has opened a probe into former governor Andrew Cuomo’s testimony before Congress about his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuomo had insisted in his testimony that he had no role in a state Department of Health audit of Cuomo’s actions in regard to senior care facilities. That turned out to be a lie, as House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) wrote in a criminal referral for perjury charges last summer:

The Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue criminal charges against Cuomo, a Democrat, for making “criminally false statements” during a June 11, 2024, interview with the House COVID subcommittee.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) charged that there was “overwhelming evidence” that Cuomo, 67, presided over a July 6, 2020, audit that undercounted the total number of deaths in New York senior care facilities during the pandemic by 46%.

In his testimony, the ex-governor was adamant that he had not drafted, reviewed, discussed or consulted people for “peer-review” on the nursing home report, which was published by the New York state Department of Health.

What happened to that criminal referral? It got rejected by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, working for Cuomo ally Joe Biden. This is the same Merrick Garland who pressed forward with criminal contempt of Congress charges against Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for refusing to testify to House committees, landing each of them in federal prison for several months.

The New York Times smells a political rat in only one direction, though:

The inquiry, begun about a month ago by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, comes after senior Justice Department officials in February demanded the dismissal of an indictment of the city’s current mayor, Eric Adams, on corruption charges.

That puts the Trump administration in the unusual position of having ended a criminal case against the leader of the nation’s largest city and opened one into his chief rival in the span of a few months. Mr. Adams is running for re-election as an independent, and Mr. Cuomo is leading the Democratic primary field in the polls.

The existence of the investigation is sure to fuel further criticism that President Trump and his administration are wielding the Justice Department as a cudgel to achieve political ends and punish his perceived enemies.

Gee … what was it when Garland refused to prosecute a Democrat governor who committed perjury to cover up his own potential crimes, while throwing the book at Donald Trump’s allies for refusing to appear? Cuomo’s policy choices killed hundreds of people in New York. Bannon and Navarro didn’t even wield policy authority in the Trump administration. Those pointless prosecutions rank right up there with James Comey’s prosecution of Martha Stewart in terms of public interest, while Cuomo got off scot-free for perjury while avoiding the accountability for his deadly choices.

Of course, that’s not how Team Cuomo sees it:

“We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now?” said Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, in a statement shared with outlets including Axios.

• “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,” he added.

Say, does everyone remember Rich Azzopardi? He made headlines in 2021 for sneering at Janice Dean’s grief over losing her inlaws to Cuomo’s policies in nursing homes. His name surfaced in reports about Cuomo’s attempts to intimidate former staffers from blowing the whistle on Cuomo’s abusive behaviors, which ended up backfiring on Cuomo and helped force him into resigning. He’s been cleaning up on Aisle Cuomo for years, usually with only a passing familiarity with the truth. 

And of course, it’s all a non sequitur to the real point: Cuomo apparently lied to Congress about his role in the changes to the audit. Or even more basically: Cuomo has never been held to account for his decision to expose elderly New Yorkers in nursing homes to COVID-positive patients, nor for his attempts to cover up the catastrophic consequences of his policies. Even a perjury prosecution would be justice akin to using tax evasion to put Capone in prison. And since the previous administration made it policy to prosecute these referrals, it hardly seems partisan to continue that policy with Cuomo.