House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer is referring Andrew Cuomo to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution for allegedly lying to Congress.
This is the second time Comer has made this referral; it was initially sent to the Department of Justice during the final months of the Biden Administration. But this time it comes as Cuomo is campaigning to be New York City’s next mayor — and as the administration shows increasing eagerness to go after Democratic officials.
The referral is based on findings from a Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which has accused Cuomo of making false statements to Congress when he was called to testify about his handling of New York’s nursing homes during the pandemic.
“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 statement.
Trending
“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. 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 statement reads.
Cuomo, who faced scrutiny in the past for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as New York’s governor, resigned in 2021 over sexual harassment allegations. The final months of his governorship were marked by scandal due to allegations that Cuomo’s administration had understated the number of COVID-19-related deaths in the state’s nursing homes for months in health department data. Cuomo has denied there ever being a cover-up. He announced his mayoral candidacy on March 1.
“This is nothing more than a meritless press release that was nonsense last year and is even more so now,” Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in a statement. “As the DOJ constantly reminds people, this kind of transparent attempt at election interference and law-fare violates their own policies. Referrals like these — which have been also made against Planned Parenthood, Hillary Clinton and Anthony Fauci — don’t have to be resubmitted with a new administration, so the only point to doing this is politics.”
When the referral was first made in October 2024, a Cuomo spokesperson told Politico it had the “legal weight of a Denny’s placemat.”
Comer’s referral comes as Republicans and the White House have reignited their attacks on the scientific community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House redirected COVID.gov to a re-done government website promoting the COVID-19 lab-leak theory. A section of the page is devoted to “New York Pandemic Failures,” picturing Cuomo and referencing the Select Subcommittee’s allegations that he lied to Congress.
Trump’s Department of Justice has been asked to investigate a number of Democratic officials, including New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Trump’s Federal Housing Finance Agency referred James for criminal prosecution last week over allegations of mortgage loan fraud. James has said the allegations are baseless. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she is reviewing those allegations.
—
Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
Author
