Justice Department's Cuomo investigation comes amid his race for New York City mayor
NEW YORK (WABC) -- The timing of a Department of Justice investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's handling of the COVID pandemic is raising some eyebrows.
The investigation comes long after the deadly outbreak and plunges the Justice Department yet again into New York politics as Cuomo runs for New York City mayor.
The timing of the investigation is also just months after federal prosecutors abandoned a corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams -- citing a desire to free Adams up to cooperate with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Experts are calling the investigation "extraordinary," pointing out that it comes just weeks away from the mayoral primary election on June 24.
On Wednesday at an unrelated press conference, Adams made a point to address the matter.
"My heart goes out when you lose a loved one in a nursing home. But investigations must take their course and I'm not going to do to him what others did to me. I'm going to allow the investigation to take its course," Adams said.
The investigation was first reported Tuesday by The New York Times.
The investigation into Cuomo revisits a years-old, politically divisive question over the then-governor's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes. Republicans have zeroed in on a controversial directive his administration issued in March 2020 that initially barred nursing homes from refusing to accept patients just because they had had COVID-19. More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients were released from hospitals into nursing homes under the directive, which was rescinded amid speculation that it had accelerated outbreaks.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer says Cuomo was not truthful during a closed-door subcommittee hearing last June. He says there is overwhelming evidence that Cuomo undercounted the total number of deaths in state senior care facilities by as much as 46%.
Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing and says he testified truthfully to the best of his recollection.
"This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple-something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against," a spokesperson for Cuomo said.
His campaign released a fiery campaign ad late Wednesday afternoon, accusing the Trump justice department of interfering with the mayoral election.
Political consultant Hank Sheinkopf says it's a smart move.
"If he's taking on Andrew Cuomo, then Andrew Cuomo's the kind of guy that a lot of New Yorkers will want. Why? They're looking for someone with the courage to take on Donald Trump in the Democratic Primary and therefore, Andrew Cuomo fits the bill," Sheinkopf said.
On Eyewitness News, Mayor Adams, whose indictment was recently dismissed by the Justice Department, was reluctant to comment on the investigation.
The Democratic mayoral candidates did not hold back and blasted front-runner Cuomo while questioning the Trump Administrations motives for launching a criminal investigation of the former governor.
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is polling a distant second in the race.
"Andrew Cuomo's record is one of corruption and deceit, and his lying to Congress about his handling of COVID is no exception to that," Mamdani said. "And I do not trust the Trump administration to pursue justice."
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is also running for mayor.
"He lied to the families long before he lied to Congress. And in my opinion, that is worse than lying to Congress," Lander said.
David Birdsell is the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Kean University.
"This is a contradiction to their own approach to political prosecution, except that they have taken now that they're comfortably in office and pursuing political enemies in a very aggressive way," Kean said.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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