Pressure mounts on Cuomo over COVID deaths at nursing homes

Pressure mounts on Cuomo over COVID deaths at nursing homes

SeattlePI.com

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced mounting challenges to his leadership on the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday as state lawmakers threatened to strip him of the power to issue emergency orders and federal investigators scrutinized his administration's handling of nursing home data.

The U.S. Justice Department has been examining the governor’s coronavirus task force and trying to determine whether the state intentionally manipulated data regarding deaths in nursing homes, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

The people, who weren't authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Cuomo administration had not been cooperative with prosecutors, especially in the early stages of the probe, and for months had not produced documents and other data the Justice Department had requested.

The inquiry began months ago in the Justice Department's civil division, and parts of it have previously been disclosed publicly. On Aug. 26, federal prosecutors gave Cuomo’s administration 14 days to provide data on nursing home deaths. More data was sought in October.

The Times Union of Albany reported Wednesday that prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn had also become involved in an inquiry.

Over the summer, Cuomo's administration assailed the investigation as politically motivated. There was also some resistance from career prosecutors inside the Justice Department’s civil rights division who viewed the investigation as political, the two people told The AP.

The investigation moved back into the public spotlight in recent weeks after revelations that Cuomo's administration had given the public, and state lawmakers, an incomplete accounting of the number of deaths at nursing homes and...

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