22 November 2021: NY Assembly Impeachment Probe Report Confirms Link Between Book Deal and Nursing Home Deaths Cover-up

State Assembly releases report on Cuomo sex harassment, COVID cover-ups and memoir

The New York Assembly's Judiciary Committee has released its report on the findings of its impeachment probe of Andrew M. Cuomo. It adds one more sexual harassment victim to the 11 covered in the state attorney general's 3 August 2020 report, which we think will draw the most attention in the media. More significantly, the report also confirms the Cuomo administration's cover-up of the full extent of COVID deaths among nursing home residents and Cuomo's mis-use of state resources to produce his pandemic "leadership" book and confirms the two scandals are interlinked. Here's an excerpt from the New York Post's coverage of the story:

According to the Assembly’s account, the memoir was in the works during the pandemic’s initial stages — fewer than three weeks after the first New Yorker tested positive for the virus and one day before the Cuomo-mandated March 20 shutdown of non-essential business.

“The book publisher first reached out to Cuomo’s literary agent about writing a book on March 19, 2020 — just weeks into the pandemic,” the report states.

By July, the scandal-scarred governor had authored 70,000 words about helming the state during the global health crisis as hundreds of thousands of New York State residents died of COVID-19, according to Assembly investigators.

The report also confirms that one of Cuomo’s most brazen claims — that his order for nursing homes to accept COVID-19-positive patients discharged from hospitals did not lead to deaths — was directly linked to the book.

On July 6, the Cuomo administration released a report purportedly showing that the controversial policy was not to blame for fatalities among residents. The same day, Cuomo and a senior Executive Chamber official reportedly met with representatives from Penguin Random House, the publisher of his memoir, about “the content” of the book.

“It’s crystal clear now that Andrew Cuomo has had a financial motive to suppress nursing home death toll numbers,” fumed State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens). “The report clarifies how the former governor abused his power to lie and cover-up life and death data to preserve his lucrative book deal. These are beyond impeachable offenses, and we must hold him accountable.”

“Cuomo was trying to meet a deadline for the book in the middle of a pandemic!” fumed Vivian Zaya, co-founder of Voices for Seniors. “It was about the fame and money at that point, not frail seniors.”

The report also reveals that during testimony before the New York State Senate in August 2020, a senior Executive Chamber employee directed a senior Department of Health official to tell lawmakers that the March 25 nursing home directive was authored by the health department without involvement from Cuomo’s administration. The statement was false, and the senior DOH official did not comply with the demand, according to the probe.

More broadly, the Assembly’s evidence shows that the former governor and his top staffers “were not fully transparent with the public regarding the number of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents.”

What will the NY Assembly do now that the report confirms Cuomo's biggest scandals?