28 October 2020: U.S. DOJ Responds to Cuomo Stonewall by Ramping Up Investigation

Justice Department ramps up inquiry into NY care home deaths

This report describes the DOJ's expanded effort to get the nursing home coronavirus data it requested, which the Cuomo administration has been stonewalling on providing.

The U.S. Justice Department vastly expanded an inquiry Wednesday that could determine whether New York is undercounting coronavirus deaths among nursing home residents, demanding detailed data from hundreds of private facilities.

The demand ratchets up pressure on Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo after months of bipartisan criticism that the state’s official tally of 6,722 dead at long-term care facilities is probably off by thousands. That’s because New York, unlike nearly every other state, counts only residents who died on a nursing home’s property and not those who died after being taken to a hospital.

Cuomo’s administration has repeatedly refused to release such nursing home data to lawmakers and the media, including a public-records request from The Associated Press dating back to May.

This step indicates how seriously this matter is being taken by the DOJ, which will now dedicate more resources to its investigation. In refusing to cooperate with the DOJ's request for information within a reasonable period of time, the Cuomo administration has all but ensured this action, as the DOJ will no longer rely upon administration officials to obtain the information its independent investigators seek.