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Manhattan DA Ends Andrew Cuomo Nursing-Home Probe
https://www.wsj.com/articles/manhattan-da-ends-andrew-cuomo-nursing-home-probe-11641250710
Jan. 3, 2022 5:58 pm ET
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has closed its investigation into how the administration of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo handled Covid-19 in nursing homes, a lawyer who represented the administration said Monday.
Defense attorney Elkan Abramowitz, who served as outside counsel for Mr. Cuomo’s executive chamber, said he was contacted Monday by the head of the Manhattan district attorney’s elder-care unit. “I was told that after a thorough investigation—as we have said all along—there was no evidence to suggest that any laws were broken,” Mr. Abramowitz said in a statement.
A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, resigned from office in August amid an impeachment inquiry and after a report substantiated multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Mr. Cuomo has said he never touched anybody inappropriately, and the investigations into his conduct were politically motivated.
The Manhattan investigation was one of several probes into the Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.
Investigators in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights bureau first requested death data from state-run nursing homes in August 2020, and another DOJ division expanded the probe to private nursing homes. In February of last year, federal prosecutors based in Brooklyn sought nursing-home death data as part of a criminal probe.
At the root of New York’s nursing-home crisis was a March 25, 2020, state Health Department directive that said nursing homes couldn’t refuse to admit a resident who tested positive for Covid-19. Nursing-home officials warned that the move could endanger residents.
State officials then withheld data on the full number of Covid-19 deaths among nursing-home residents, and aides to Mr. Cuomo successfully pushed to use a lower tally in a Health Department report on the matter. Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized Mr. Cuomo for suppressing the death toll while negotiating a $5.1 million contract to write a memoir about his experience during the pandemic.
Prosecutors subsequently sought material related to the book project and a grand jury was convened, according to a July memorandum that Mr. Abramowitz sent to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. Mr. Abramowitz said in the memorandum that the March 25 order was consistent with federal regulations at the time.
There was no connection between Mr. Cuomo’s book contract and the publication of the full death toll, Mr. Abramowitz wrote. The former governor has said the data were withheld to ensure their accuracy.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to comment. The Civil Rights Division never opened a formal investigation after reviewing the data it requested, an official told Republican lawmakers in a July 2021 letter.
The notification from the Manhattan prosecutor’s office comes after District Attorney Alvin Bragg was sworn in on Jan. 1. He succeeded Cyrus Vance Jr. , who had served in the post since 2010.
Manhattan DA Ends Andrew Cuomo Nursing-Home Probe
https://www.wsj.com/articles/manhattan-da-ends-andrew-cuomo-nursing-home-probe-11641250710
Jan. 3, 2022 5:58 pm ET
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has closed its investigation into how the administration of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo handled Covid-19 in nursing homes, a lawyer who represented the administration said Monday.
Defense attorney Elkan Abramowitz, who served as outside counsel for Mr. Cuomo’s executive chamber, said he was contacted Monday by the head of the Manhattan district attorney’s elder-care unit. “I was told that after a thorough investigation—as we have said all along—there was no evidence to suggest that any laws were broken,” Mr. Abramowitz said in a statement.
A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, resigned from office in August amid an impeachment inquiry and after a report substantiated multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Mr. Cuomo has said he never touched anybody inappropriately, and the investigations into his conduct were politically motivated.
The Manhattan investigation was one of several probes into the Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.
Investigators in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights bureau first requested death data from state-run nursing homes in August 2020, and another DOJ division expanded the probe to private nursing homes. In February of last year, federal prosecutors based in Brooklyn sought nursing-home death data as part of a criminal probe.
At the root of New York’s nursing-home crisis was a March 25, 2020, state Health Department directive that said nursing homes couldn’t refuse to admit a resident who tested positive for Covid-19. Nursing-home officials warned that the move could endanger residents.
State officials then withheld data on the full number of Covid-19 deaths among nursing-home residents, and aides to Mr. Cuomo successfully pushed to use a lower tally in a Health Department report on the matter. Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized Mr. Cuomo for suppressing the death toll while negotiating a $5.1 million contract to write a memoir about his experience during the pandemic.
Prosecutors subsequently sought material related to the book project and a grand jury was convened, according to a July memorandum that Mr. Abramowitz sent to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. Mr. Abramowitz said in the memorandum that the March 25 order was consistent with federal regulations at the time.
There was no connection between Mr. Cuomo’s book contract and the publication of the full death toll, Mr. Abramowitz wrote. The former governor has said the data were withheld to ensure their accuracy.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to comment. The Civil Rights Division never opened a formal investigation after reviewing the data it requested, an official told Republican lawmakers in a July 2021 letter.
The notification from the Manhattan prosecutor’s office comes after District Attorney Alvin Bragg was sworn in on Jan. 1. He succeeded Cyrus Vance Jr. , who had served in the post since 2010.
