24 December 2022: Grieving Relatives Plan Legal Action Against Government Over COVID Care Home Deaths

Grieving relatives plan legal action against government over Covid care home deaths

This story comes from the United Kingdom, which shares many of the same problems that resulted from the resigned-in-disgrace former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive. Here's the introduction for this report:

Relatives of care home residents who died of Covid-19 are preparing to take legal action against the government over the spread of virus in the first wave of the pandemic.

Kim Nottage, from Bethnal Green, is among those who are pursuing legal action against the Health Secretary, the Health Security Agency, and individual care homes.

She lost her 86-year-old mother, Maureen, when she was being cared for at Aspen Court care home in Poplar, London, managed by HC-One.

Here are the main excerpts where the similarities with Andrew M. Cuomo's disastrous COVID policies for nursing home residents really begin to take off, highlighted boldface emphasis ours:

Law firm Leigh Day said on Friday that it is representing Mr Bethell, Ms Nottage, and three other grieving relatives in planned legal action over the discharge of patients with Covid from hospitals back to care homes in the early stages of the pandemic in 2020. Others could join the legal action as it progresses....

Earlier this year, a judge at the High Court found that government policies in March and April 2020, to discharge patients from hospital back to care homes to free up beds, had been unlawful.

A judge concluded ministers had failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission of the Covid virus....

Leigh Day solicitor Beatrice Morgan added: “Policy and guidance was issued which encouraged the move of patients from hospitals to care homes, yet failed to take into account the risk of asymptomatic transmission of covid-19 to individuals who were most vulnerable to the virus.

“Rather than ensuring residents were protected, government decisions allowed the deadly virus to spread like wildfire throughout care homes across the country.

“The advice was changed far too late, it is impossible to know just how many lives were lost as a result.”

The U.K.'s legal system is moving more quickly than where similar cases are being advanced in New York's state courts. These cases are likely to serve as models for how similar cases in U.S. courts will be litigated.

21 December 2022: NJ Governor Murphy Fires CEO of State-Run Nursing Home for Veterans

CEO out at troubled veterans home as Murphy's privatization plan moves forward

NJ Governor Phil Murphy finally got around to acting on his promise to remove the state government employee running one of the worst-run nursing homes for veterans in the state.

The head of the state-run veterans home in Menlo Park is gone amid another turbulent time for the nursing home as Gov. Phil Murphy seeks to privatize management following a long outbreak of COVID this year that killed more than a dozen, state officials confirmed Wednesday.

CEO Jennifer Causer's departure comes the same week that Gov. Phil Murphy's administration began soliciting proposals for a private company to provide management at Menlo Park and two other veterans homes in Paramus and Vineland.

The move was not unexpected. Installing a new CEO was among the first major moves Murphy said he would make when announcing the privatization effort three weeks ago.

Causer's departure comes about a month after an inspection report showed staff at Menlo Park were still practicing poor infection control even though the home had one of the highest death tolls among nursing homes nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. The inspection, conducted in August and September, found that administrators failed to implement safe practices including testing, contact tracing and staff training.

Note: This article was retroactively inserted in the timeline on 29 December 2022.

17 December 2022: New Ethics Panel Proposes "Cuomo Rules" to Block Media Project Profiteering by Pols

Cuomo rules: New York’s new ethics panel looks to prevent another book scandal

You know a politician has crossed ethical lines when they name new laws or policy fixes after them. This report describes the "Cuomo Rules" proposed to stop NY politicians from personally profiting from their powerful elected positions through media deals.

The newly formed New York state ethics panel said Friday it will put safeguards in place — being referred to as “Andrew Cuomo rules” — that would prevent approval of any fat book contracts from a governor or statewide official without input from commissioners.

Reports released by the state Assembly and the much-criticized Joint Commission on Public Ethics – a now defunct body replaced by the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying months ago – detail how Cuomo was able to profit off of his 2020 memoir “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” under questionable circumstances.

Cuomo, who denied any wrongdoing, received permission to ink the lucrative $5.1 million deal with Penguin Books from a lawyer for JCOPE – an agency he was known to dominate – before reportedly leaning on government resources to help him produce the 309-page tribute to his own pandemic response.

JCOPE’s own commissioners never voted to approve the book deal and some were not even aware of the details....

“The successor agency [to JCOPE] should require any outside activity request by a statewide office holder to be decided by a vote of the Commissioners,” the report by the Hogan Lovell’s law firm said.

The ethics agency should also create a list of information and documents that must be provided in connection with all outside activity requests and have a “standard waiting period” for such requests.

Here is background on Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal from the timeline:

• 19 March 2020: Cuomo's Literary Agent Takes Call from Publisher Seeking Book by Cuomo About Pandemic Leadership, Work Begins Shortly Afterward
• 27 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Reviews Early Drafts of His Pandemic Leadership Book
• 1 July 2020: Draft of Cuomo Pandemic "Leadership" Book Reaches 70,000 Words in Length
• 5 July 2020: Top Cuomo Staffer Edits His Pandemic "Leadership" Book, NY DOH Nursing Home Report
• 6 July 2020: Cuomo and Top Staffer Meet with Publisher to Discuss Book Deal
• 8 July 2020: Bidding Begins for Right to Publish Cuomo's Pandemic "Leadership" Book
• 1 April 2021: Governor Cuomo's Pandemic Book Deal Scandal Blows Up
• 9 April 2021: Cuomo Staffers Not Volunteers in Governor's Book Project
• 19 April 2021: DiNapoli Refers Cuomo Pandemic Book Scandal Case to State AG
• 30 April 2021: Cuomo Book Deal a Motive for Continuing Cover-up of COVID Nursing Home Deaths
• 17 May 2021: Cuomo To Collect $5.12 Million from Pandemic Leadership Book Deal
• 19 May 2021: Opinion - Cuomo Earned $102 per Book Sold During Cover-up
• 8 June 2021: Prosecutors Subpoena Cuomo Book Material in Probe of COVID Nursing Home Deaths
• 5 October 2021: JCOPE's Commissioners to Investigate JCOPE Staff Over Cuomo Book Deal
• 22 November 2021: NY Assembly Impeachment Probe Report Confirms Link Between Book Deal and Nursing Home Deaths Cover-up
• 23 November 2021: Cuomo Cover-up of COVID Nursing Home Deaths Originated in March 2020
• 9 December 2021: How Can JCOPE Claw Back Cuomo's Pandemic "Leadership" Book Deal Millions?
• 27 January 2022: JCOPE Subpoena Probes Cuomo Pandemic 'Volunteers'
• 15 March 2022: JCOPE Tries Again to Force Cuomo to Give Up Proceeds from Corrupt Pandemic "Leadership" Book Deal Profits
• 19 March 2022: JCOPE Orders Cuomo to Repay Pandemic "Leadership" Book Deal Millions to Publisher
• 1 April 2022: Cuomo Sues JCOPE in Bid To Keep $5M Book Deal Profits
• 5 April 2022: Cuomo Book Deal Still Under Investigation Despite Suit, AG James Says
• 27 April 2022: JCOPE Hires Lawyers to Fight Lawsuit Over Cuomo Pandemic Book Deal Profits
• 30 May 2022: Cuomo Lawyers Try to Run Out Clock on JCOPE
• 14 June 2022: Ethics Commissioner Accuses Cuomo's Attorney of Defamation
• 8 July 2022: JCOPE's Final Report - Cuomo Wrongly Used State Resources for Pandemic "Leadership" Book

As of 17 December 2022, the state attorney general's criminal probe of Andrew M. Cuomo's book deal has made no visible progress since 5 April 2022.

16 December 2022: Judge Suggests New Yorkers Should Pay Cuomo Legal Bills for Sexual Harassment Charges

Judge leans toward Andrew Cuomo’s claim that NY should fund defense in harass case

The state government of New York's strange history of paying for the legal defenses of state government employees involved in sexual misconduct may come back to bite New Yorkers, who may be forced to pay for the resigned-in-disgrace Andrew M. Cuomo's legal bills associated with the allegations that prompted his resignation. Here's the introduction to this report:

A Manhattan judge Thursday appeared to side with Andrew Cuomo in the disgraced ex-governor’s bid to have New York taxpayers fund his legal defense in a lawsuit accusing him of sexually harassing a female state trooper.

During over two hours of oral arguments, lawyers for Cuomo and for state Attorney General Letitia James’ office argued over whether Cuomo was acting within his duty as governor when the alleged harassment occurred — which would entitle him to a free defense.

“Conduct that underlies a sexual harassment claim is conduct that is based on personal motivations and does not serve the employer,” AG lawyer Andrew Amer said, arguing that Cuomo was not acting as governor at the time.

But Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shlomo Hagler countered: “I have seen in cases of touching and hugging and unfortunate comments and jokes — there has been a [legal] defense in 99% of those cases.”

Funny how the laws politicians pass seem designed to either not apply to them or to give them special benefits above and beyond what ordinary people can get.

8 December 2022: NJ Lawmakers Won't Probe Murphy's COVID Policies Anytime Soon

N.J. lawmakers won’t launch their own probe into COVID, at least not now, top Dem says

Instead of taking what we argued is the next logical step of probing what happened in New Jersey's nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic after NJ Governor Phil Murphy's de facto admission of his leadership failure, the majority Democrats in the state legislature are circling their wagons to protect the interests of NJ Governor Phil Murphy by choosing to continue kicking that can down the road. The excerpt below from NJ.com tells the story of their political complicity after the fact of the scandal:

While Gov. Phil Murphy last week announced a long-awaited outside review into how New Jersey responded to COVID-19 under his leadership, Republican lawmakers have continued to call for a separate legislative probe, complete with subpoena power.

But New Jersey’s top state lawmaker said there aren’t plans for the Democratic-controlled state Legislature to launch one, at least not immediately.

“It’s not gonna happen now,” state Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, told NJ Advance Media on Monday at the Statehouse in Trenton. “Might it happen in the future? Sure. I think it’s possible.”

Scutari, the leader of the Legislature’s upper house, noted how Murphy, a fellow Democrat, just announced the review and said legislative leaders will wait until it’s over — possibly a year from now — before evaluating the situation.

“I’m not gonna reinvent the wheel,” Scutari said. “Let them do that first. They’re gonna spend a lot of money on it, I’m sure. Let’s see what they say, and if we’re not satisfied with that, then sure, it’s an open possibility.”

There is a very recent precedent the state legislature could follow instead of this approach, based on how the legislature probed the role of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and several of his top aides in the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal. That they're not is how to tell what they're choosing to not do is more about protecting the state Democratic party's interests rather than doing what's best for New Jersey's nursing home residents:

Multiple Republican lawmakers have said they want the Legislature to hold a parallel investigation into COVID-19 similar to the one held during Bridgegate. They note it would have subpoena power to force the release of documents that Murphy’s administration has not made public during the pandemic.

They also say they want to make sure there is a thorough look at longterm care deaths, as well as Murphy’s business and school closings.

The legislature's probe of the Bridgegate scandal cost $1.1 million. That would be 0.002% of the $50.6 billion the state legislature approved for the state government's 2022-2023 fiscal year, which is how to tell the cost of such a probe is not a real issue.

Waiting another year for Governor Murphy's own report, where he has a strong motive to absolve himself of any wrongdoing, doesn't make sense.

3 December 2022: NJ Governor Murphy Turns to Private Sector to Take Over State Government-Run Nursing Homes for Veterans

Murphy seeks to privatize management of troubled NJ veterans homes ravaged by COVID

In a stunning development, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is turning to the private sector to bail out state government-run nursing homes for veterans. We'll have more analysis after the excerpt from this story:

Two years after they suffered some of the highest COVID deaths tolls in the nation and with problems still persisting, Gov. Phil Murphy took the unusual step Wednesday to outsource the management of New Jersey's three troubled veterans homes to a private company.

The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs will seek a vendor to manage "systemic changes" and provide "qualified, administrative staff" to run the homes in Menlo Park, Paramus and Vineland, Murphy said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

The move comes weeks after the release of an inspection that found poor infection control measures continuing at the Menlo Park home, where a long outbreak of COVID this year killed more than a dozen. Federal officials stopped payments last week for new admissions until reforms are made and threatened to stop all payments by March. Murphy also sent a three-member Health Department team to shore up infection control and other poor practices at the home....

The Paramus and Menlo Park homes were already two of the biggest COVID disasters in the U.S. long before the latest inspection report.

The facilities gained national attention in spring 2020 when more than 200 residents died at the start of the pandemic.

The Paramus home was found to have major infection control problems that included allowing COVID-positive residents to mingle with those whose COVID status was unknown. Menlo Park staff members nearly revolted after management stopped them from using the home's supply of face masks while Murphy's office helped devise disciplinary procedures for those who took them.

We view Murphy's move as one of desperation. It is a de facto admission his administration's management of New Jersey's nursing homes for veterans has been an unmitigated failure. It is also an admission his administration has no ability to turn around the situation at the three veterans home it fully controls by replacing their current managers with other state government officials. It is, plain and simple, an admission of the failure of his leadership.

New Jersey's lawmakers, especially those who are belatedly supporting this change, now need to take the next logical step of fully investigating what happened at New Jersey's nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic. The mismanagement at New Jersey's nursing homes for veterans demonstrates those problems clearly go all the way to the top of New Jersey's state government. That mismanagement also applies to the policies Phil Murphy and his top administrators imposed during the pandemic. Policies that included foolishly copy-catting Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive, which negatively impacted all nursing homes in New Jersey.

It's long past time to get to the bottom of it all.

29 November 2022: Cuomo Files Motion to Force NY AG James to Release Files

Cuomo continues 'crusade' to get AG to release his case files

After months of inaction, the glacial pace of New York's legal system was upset by the latest legal maneuvering by Andrew M. Cuomo's team of highly compensated attorneys. Here's the very short summary: "A new motion filed by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's attorney challenges attorney general's claim that sovereign immunity and law enforcement privileges shield them from disclosing the records from their investigation that concluded he was a serial sexual harasser."

Here's a longer excerpt:

An attorney for former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has asked a federal judge to deny the state attorney general's motion to quash a subpoena that would require the office to turn over all of its files on the investigation that led to Cuomo's resignation.

The 32-page motion was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn in connection with a lawsuit filed by a State Police investigator who accuses the former governor of sexually harassing her, kissing her on the cheek and inappropriately touching her stomach and back while she was assigned to his protective detail.

The motion filed by Cuomo's attorney, Rita Glavin, challenges the state attorney general's claims that sovereign immunity and law enforcement privileges shield them from disclosing the records, which court records indicate amount to about 73,000 documents, including communications with more than 100 witnesses.

Skipping ahead, here's the meat of what's in the motion and the attorney general office's response:

"Gov. Cuomo is entitled to discover the unreleased investigative materials. Without all documents underlying the (attorney general's) report, Gov. Cuomo will not have a full and fair opportunity to defend himself against Trooper 1’s allegations," Glavin wrote. "The (attorney general) should not be able to broadcast to the public that it is complying with the subpoena by producing what it claims are the only 'relevant' documents while strategically relying on sovereign immunity to withhold critical documents. This is particularly true since the missing documents will, in all likelihood, cast doubt on the investigation."

While invoking arguments of state sovereign immunity as well as law enforcement privilege, the attorney general's office has also voluntarily produced many documents in response to Cuomo's subpoena. Glavin noted that many of the undisclosed materials also were shared with law enforcement agencies and she disputes any assertion that they are "attorney-client" privileged documents.

The attorney general's office cast Cuomo's efforts to subpoena its records as "a relentless campaign to undermine the report and rehabilitate his reputation."

"It has nothing to do with any legitimate effort to obtain documents and information necessary for (Cuomo) to defend himself against the harassment and retaliation claims asserted by Trooper 1," the attorney general's office wrote in a motion asking a judge to reject the subpoena.

We'll keep on the watch for more slowly moving legal procedures....

28 November 2022: Feds Stop New Admissions at NJ Nursing Homes for Veterans

Feds halt new admissions at troubled NJ veterans home as safety, COVID problems remain

This story came out on Friday, 25 November 2022, in the style of a Friday night news dump during a holiday weekend by politicians desperately seeking to avoid attention. We did notice however, and we're making a point of putting it front and center first thing on the Monday morning after the holiday. Here's an excerpt:

The federal agency that acts as the primary funding source for New Jersey's troubled veterans homes began withholding payments this week at the Menlo Park facility after Gov. Phil Murphy's administration failed to fix major problems with infection control, officials confirmed late Wednesday.

The move effectively stopped the Edison nursing home from admitting new residents to the facility, which families across New Jersey depend on to take care of their ailing loved ones, many whom served in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Major Ameila Thatcher, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, confirmed that new admissions "are temporarily paused."

In a statement to NorthJersey.com, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said problems that "significantly impacted the safety of residents" documented in a scathing inspection report over the summer had still not been corrected to the agency's satisfaction.

"Denial of payment for all new admissions began on [Tuesday] because the ongoing quality concerns have not been addressed," said Bruce Alexander, communications director of CMS.

What the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS) are effectively saying is they have no confidence in troubled NJ Governor Phil Murphy's actions to date to address the now well-documented problems at the state government-operated nursing homes for veterans. CMMS is using the power of its purse to force Governor Murphy to rectify the problems that his administration has so far allowed to go unaddressed since they permitted COVID to decimate the population of residents at these facilities in early 2020.

27 November 2022: NJ Lawmakers Demand Reform of State-Operated Nursing Homes for Veterans

NJ lawmakers call for overhaul of state veterans homes in wake of report, COVID deaths

After being called out by a whistleblower for their inaction, New Jersey state lawmakers are suddenly acting with the kind of urgency that only public pressure driven by scandal-oriented news coverage can deliver. Here's an excerpt:

Operation of New Jersey’s state-run veterans homes, where more than 200 residents died during the COVID pandemic, should be removed from the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and made part of a new state department of veterans services, the chair of the state Senate Health Committee said this week.

“We made a promise we would care for [the veterans] at the highest level after they served our country,” said state Sen. Joe Vitale, chair of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. “We’re not. We're failing them. Changing personnel here or there won’t make the difference.”

The state's lawmakers have a lot of making up to do for not taking even minimal actions earlier. Actions like probing what happened at New Jersey's nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. It's unfortunate NorthJersey.com decided to wait until after the midterm elections to escalate its coverage of the scandal affecting the role of state lawmakers in permitting the problems at New Jersey's nursing homes to go unaddressed for so long.

27 November 2022: Whistleblower Speaks About NJ's COVID Nursing Home Deaths for Veterans

Exclusive: Exec who blew the whistle on NJ COVID deaths at vets home says key flaws remain

Welcome back from the Thanksgiving holiday! We're picking things up with this in-depth story about the whistleblower who reported the COVID deaths taking place at nursing homes for veterans operated by the New Jersey state government. Here's the introduction, which communicates the urgency that existed back in early 2020:

As COVID raced through the state-run veterans home in Paramus at the start of the pandemic in 2020, an administrator watched with growing alarm as residents died, staff members fell sick and the facility ran short of masks, gloves, gowns and tests. Panic spread as quickly as the virus itself.

When the death toll climbed to six or seven a day at an institution that typically saw three or four resident deaths a week, that administrator became the whistleblower who called himself “vetkeeper.”

On April 8, 2020, using his pseudonym and an encrypted email service based in Switzerland, he contacted NorthJersey.com to report what he was seeing.

“Nearly 40 resident deaths since March 25,” he wrote. “Ten more residents positive, 47 waiting test results ... The public needs to know. I am on the inside. I will keep you posted.”

The first story of the deaths at the New Jersey Memorial Veterans Home at Paramus, based on information from “vetkeeper” and other sources, broke that evening. “Vetkeeper” arrived at work the next morning to find two news trucks out front, a helicopter overhead and the National Guard on the way.

But in many respects, it was too late. Nearly a third of the residents at the Paramus veterans home would die of COVID or presumed COVID. In all, more than 200 residents died at New Jersey’s two hardest-hit veterans homes — 86 from confirmed COVID in Paramus and 72 in Menlo Park, with another 47 at the two homes presumed to have died from COVID.

That's old news, here's the new news, as the whistleblower has now disclosed their identity:

Now “vetkeeper” has decided to reveal his identity and say more about the veterans home. He is Dave Ofshinsky, former business manager and, for a brief period, assistant CEO for non-clinical affairs at the Paramus home, where he worked for 5½ years.

He says he is doing so out of frustration at what has not happened since that initial COVID crisis.

“Nothing has happened from the administration [of Gov. Phil Murphy] on this,” Ofshinsky said in a recent interview at his home. “When it was happening, the governor said there was going to be a ‘post-mortem. We’ll get to the bottom of this.’”

A recent scathing inspection report on the state veterans home at Menlo Park, a sister institution, only strengthened his views. It cited the home for having COVID infection control lapses that jeopardized the health and safety of all its residents and staff, as well as abuse of a resident. This week, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, threatened to effectively shut down the home saying they would stop paying for new admissions beginning Nov. 22, and stop all payments by March 8 unless "substantial compliance is achieved."

“All that’s happened has been the payouts to families,” Ofshinsky said, referring to $69 million in state funds to 190 families of dead or sickened veterans to quietly settle their legal claims.

Payouts to settle legal claims might bring a sense of closure to some, Ofshinsky said, but “I myself never had a sense of closure that the state has done the right thing to prevent something like this ever happening again.”

Ofshinsky is well justified in his view, because New Jersey's state government has not acted to correct the well documented problems at the nursing homes it ran. In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice has made no visible progress in its criminal investigation of what happened in New Jersey's nursing homes for months.

There's quite a lot more to the story, so we'll recommend clicking through to the story to get all the details.

10 November 2022: Veterans group blasts Murphy over scathing COVID inspection report at veterans home

Veterans group blasts Murphy over scathing COVID inspection report at veterans home

Some well-deserved blowback directed at the New Jersey state officials responsible for operating the state's nursing homes for veterans is now becoming public. Here's an excerpt from NorthJersey.com's report:

The Veterans of Foreign Wars blasted Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday following the release of a scathing inspection report this week that found allegations of abuse and lack of infection control to contain COVID-19 at the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park, where more than 100 residents died from the virus.

"The report strongly suggests that under governor Murphy’s watch the conditions have not significantly improved since 2020 when our New Jersey veterans under his care died in the highest numbers," Jay Boxwell, the VFW's state commander, wrote in a news release.

He said the Murphy administration "continues to care for our veterans as second-class citizens."

Christi Peace, a spokeswoman for Murphy, said the administration did not want to comment because there is an "ongoing investigation at Menlo Park." She said in an email that the administration "values input from veteran groups and shares the same goal of protecting the health and well-being of veterans under the state's care."

The "ongoing investigation" is a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Biden administration that hasn't made any visible progress toward any conclusion for many, many months.

8 November 2022: New Inspection of NJ Veterans Home Shows Major Issues Still Exist Years After COVID Deaths

New inspection of NJ veterans home shows major issues still exist years after COVID deaths

The lack of consequences for government officials responsible for either overseeing or providing care at New Jersey's state-operated nursing homes for veterans related to 2020's COVID nursing home deaths has led to a very predictable result. Here is an excerpt from NorthJersey.com's Scott Fallon and Lindy Washburn 8 November 2022 report:

When COVID-19 swept through the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park, killing more than 100 residents in early 2020, administrators, lawmakers and even Gov. Phil Murphy vowed changes would be made to ensure better care of the elderly men and women at the state-run facility.

But a team of state Health Department inspectors found the opposite during an inspection over the summer.

A 293-page inspection report cited the facility for four separate violations of nursing home standards that put all of its residents and staff in "immediate jeopardy" — the most severe and widespread level of harm in the enforcement arsenal. Among the citations is failure to contain the spread of COVID in a November 2021 outbreak that lasted for months due to a lack of basic infection control, testing and contact tracing....

Menlo Park, along with its sister home in Paramus, already had one of the largest death tolls of any nursing home during the pandemic. There have been 72 confirmed resident deaths at Menlo Park along with 39 probable deaths in which residents who were not tested died of COVID symptoms at the height of the pandemic.

Paramus had 86 confirmed and eight probable deaths. New Jersey's third state-run veterans home in Vineland had 14 confirmed deaths.

For more than two years, Murphy has repeatedly said his administration would conduct a "full accounting" and a "post-mortem" at the homes to ensure the health and safety of future residents. But Murphy has never defined what he means and there is no indication he has launched an investigation. Only one legislative hearing has been held on the veterans homes by a Senate committee in August 2020 that explored some of the reasons the death toll was so high.

The new report is the first indication that promised reforms haven't come to fruition.

Democratic party politicians in New Jersey's state legislature have blocked any probe of what happened in New Jersey's nursing homes during the COVID pandemic, claiming it would interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Biden administration.

We can find no evidence in the news media that any progress has been made in that probe for nearly a year. The absence of effective action by the Biden DOJ and New Jersey state officials to investigate the negligence and other serious abuses that occurred at New Jersey's veterans homes during the pandemic now means none of those problems are being fixed.

5 November 2022: Replacement NY Governor Slammed for Slow-Walking Cuomo COVID Nursing Home Deaths Probe

Gov. Hochul slammed for timing of probe into Cuomo’s COVID response

After months of needless inaction, replacement NY Governor Kathy Hochul has earned criticism for her extremely slow response to investigate Andrew M. Cuomo' COVID nursing home deaths scandals. The criticism comes as Hochul awarded a multi-million dolar contract to a law firm that will investigate how state's policies under the resigned-in-disgrace former NY governor Andrew M. Cuomo contributed to excess COVID deaths at the state's nursing homes.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has awarded a $4.3 million contract to investigate New York’s Andrew Cuomo-led response to the coronavirus outbreak — drawing fire from critics who accuse her of slow-walking the probe until after Tuesday’s election.

The one-year contract goes to consultant the Olson Group, an emergency management firm in Alexandria, Va. Hochul, who was lieutenant governor during the pandemic, first announced the planned probe in July.

But critics say the timing of the firm’s hire is curious — announced during the final days of a gubernatorial campaign where Hochul is fighting for her political life in a closer than expected race against Republican opponent Lee Zeldin.

“Given that COVID killed more than 75,000 New Yorkers — and the next virus could arrive at any time — the state’s leaders might have been expected to show more urgency in studying how to improve their operations,” said Bill Hammond, health analyst at the Empire Center for Public Policy, in a blog post.

Here's a link to Hammond's post criticizing Hochul's "underwhelming" response. We would describe his critique of Hochul's absence of proactive leadership as particularly damning:

Back in April, Hochul reportedly told her cabinet she wanted a “deep dive” on the state’s response in a matter of weeks, then waited until July to launch the search for outside help. Officials estimated they would award the contract “on or about” Sept. 20, which was six weeks ago.

Given that COVID killed more than 75,000 New Yorkers – and the next virus could arrive at any time – the state’s leaders might have been expected to show more urgency in studying how to improve their operations.

Worse, Hammond notes the legal firm will not have subpoena power, which will hamper its ability to gather information from state officials that may seek to cover up their role in the COVID nursing home deaths scandals:

Further revealing details can be found in the state’s answers to questions posed by firms that were thinking of bidding for the study contract.

Firms were curious about how much access they would be given to relevant information such as data, documents and interviews with current and former officials – which is an important consideration given the Cuomo administration’s months-long attempt to hide the true COVID death toll in nursing homes.

The state’s response gave no guarantees:

“The State will work with the vendor to access state data as expeditiously as possible. … Please note, this review does not and will not have the power to compel participation or document production.” (Emphasis added.)

In other words, the Olson Group will not have subpoena power to obtain documents or testimony from the former governor, his top aides or any other uncooperative witnesses – which could be a significant obstacle to getting at the truth.

Hammond's larger point is that the probe Hochul has so belatedly initiated is, by design, not capable of producing results that will lead to effective reforms. Reforms that would prevent the repeat of policy failures Andrew M. Cuomo's inadequate leadership produced during the period his deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. Those policy failures led to the excess deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of New York's nursing home residents.

With the 2022 elections set to take place on Tuesday, 8 November, it is possible their outcome could determine whether New York follows the path replacement governor Hochul has chosen or pursues a more robust response with different leaders in charge. We'll find out soon enough.

24 October 2022: U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik Pledges Congressional Probe of Cuomo's Deadly Directive

We're playing a bit of catch up following our last "live" post on 13 October 2022. We added this story to the timeline on 30 October 2022.

Stefanik pledges investigation into Cuomo nursing home order if GOP takes House majority

The run-up to the 2022 mid-term elections have featured very little news about Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals, but this story broke through the election noise. Here's an excerpt of WRGB's coverage:

Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik appearing in Rensselaer County Monday to make a big announcement.

She is pledging a congressional investigation into New York's nursing home deaths during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Stefanik says this investigation would look into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s March 2020 order that saw COVID-19 positive residents readmitted to nursing homes. That order has been blamed for thousands of deaths. Stefanik appeared outside the county's Van Rensselaer Manor nursing home in East Greenbush....

Stefanik said,

“Make no mistake there must be accountability and there must be transparency and answers... That did not abide by CMS guidance.”

Stefanik says if Republicans take the majority in Congress after the midterms, they would have subpoena power -- so they could compel Cuomo to testify.

The lack of legal subpoena power to compel testimony about Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals has been a consistent factor limiting the few probes that have taken place to date. It's a much needed remedy to the alternative of sweeping the scandals under the rug.

16 October 2022: Janice Dean Raps Replacement NY Governor Hochul for Lack of Action on Cuomo COVID Nursing Home Deaths

We're playing a bit of catch up following our last "live" post on 13 October 2022. We added this story to the timeline on 30 October 2022.

I believed Hochul, but her probe of COVID nursing-home deaths in New York is ‘damn’ late

As we suspected, there have hardly been any news items covering Andrew M. Cuomo's 25 March 2020 directive and its deadly consequences as the media has been mostly focused on the runup to the 8 November 2022 mid-term elections.

But not entirely, as this op-ed from Janice Dean demonstrates. As a member of one of the thousands of families who were harmed by Andrew M. Cuomo's negligent policies, she expressed her disappointment in this op-ed. Here's an excerpt:

Hochul listened sympathetically to my husband, Sean, as he painfully explained what it was like losing both his parents within two weeks of each other and not being able to see or comfort them. My friends, Peter and Daniel Arbeeny, gave Hochul their father’s death certificate and asked why he wasn’t counted in the whitewash of nursing-home ­fatalities. I commented after our meeting that Hochul’s actions would speak louder than words, and a year later we have seen nothing to indicate she has been true to her promise. Her “blue-ribbon panel” into the “good, bad and ugly” decisions made during the pandemic has never happened.

Peter Arbeeny, a lifelong Democrat, says he often wonders: If Cuomo were a Republican, would we “still be here two years later waiting for the Democratic machine to start an investigation with subpoena power?”

Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican running for governor against Hochul, has promised families if he wins to “appoint a special prosecution my first day in office to investigate and prosecute any crimes regarding the order and the cover up.” That’s something that should happen regardless of who wins in November.

My friend and fellow advocate, Assemblyman Ron Kim, who helped facilitate the meeting between grieving families and Hochul last October, is still holding out hope that she will be true to her word, but argues she can’t choose consultants to do the report. It needs to be an “independent commission with full subpoena and investigative powers. This cannot be like the 2020 DOH report that went back to then-Governor Cuomo where he controlled the facts and the narrative.”

Replacement NY Governor Kathy Hochul's failure to follow through on such an independent probe raises legitimate questions about her leadership. Which we view as entirely self-inflicted. Why she, as someone who had no role in the formation, implementation, or execution of Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive would not pursue an independent investigation of excess COVID deaths in New York's nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic is a glaring, unanswered question.

13 October 2022: Federal Court Allows COVID Negligence Lawsuit Against Nursing Home to Proceed

target="_blank">Court Allows COVID-19 Negligence Claim to Proceed Against Long Term Care Facility

In what may be a bellwether ruling, a federal court will allow a COVID-19 negligence lawsuit filed against a nursing home to go forward. Though the specific case involves a Philadelphia nursing home, the piercing of legal immunity granted by a state governor for COVID deaths may soon have a direct bearing on cases across the United States.

In a surprising ruling for nursing facilities throughout Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania declined to dismiss a complaint against a nursing home alleging negligence in protecting residents from COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. In doing so, the court determined that the federal Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act of 2005 (PREP Act) and Gov. Tom Wolf’s March 2020 order pursuant to the Pennsylvania emergency management services code (PEMSC order) do not immunize nursing homes and other similar facilities from negligence claims.

The case involves the death of a resident at a suburban Philadelphia nursing home during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic March-April 2020. The resident’s estate alleged that the nursing home was negligent because it did not enforce the implementation of personal protective equipment for staff, did not isolate or properly socially distance the resident from other residents with COVID-19, and did not implement proper infectious disease protocols, leading to the resident’s contraction of COVID-19 and death.

This ruling may open the door for families harmed by the deadly negligence that was green-lighted in states that followed the example of Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive to pursue litigation for the damages and deaths that resulted. As such, we expect this case may soon be elevated to federal appeals courts as the nursing home industry that benefited from such immunity arrangements will push back because of their new exposure to adverse judgments.

7 October 2022: Cuomo Lawyers Want AG, NY Assembly Impeachment Probe Files

Cuomo files motions seeking disclosure of attorney general, Assembly misconduct investigation documents

Legal developent! Andrew M. Cuomo's attorneys are seeking copies of the files assembled by New York's state attorney general's office and the New York Assembly's Judiciary Committee in their respective investigations of Cuomo's alleged sexual harassment of multiple women during his tenure as New York's governor.

Attorneys for former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo have filed motions seeking thousands of documents from both a top legislative committee and Attorney General Letitia James' office related to their respective investigations of the ex-governor.

Cuomo's attorney Rita Glavin asked a federal trial court to compel the state Assembly’s Judiciary Committee as well as the attorney general's office to turn over documents and investigative materials that were used in James’ probe of sexual misconduct allegations against the former governor as well as the legislative report the committee released a few months after Cuomo resigned in August 2021....

The former governor filed a subpoena seeking the materials in July, months after the trooper's lawsuit accused him of sexual harassment including inappropriately touching her and kissing her on the cheek when she served on Cuomo's protective detail.

Both the Assembly Judiciary Committee and James have refused to produce documents in compliance with the subpoena, the motions claim....

According to the motions, the committee and the attorney general's office have claimed attorney-client privilege and deemed the requested documents irrelevant in response to Cuomo's subpoenas.

It's not much, but it confirms that not much has happened over the last several months. At least this story was on topic for Andrew M. Cuomo's legal troubles. It certainly beats the alternative of paying attention to whatever it is that Chris Cuomo, the hapless, journalism-ethics compromised brother of the resigned-in-disgrace former governor, is doing these days.

We don't anticipate much news until after the mid-term elections on 8 November 2022, and then, not for a couple of weeks after that.

28 September 2022: The Governor Who Quit Attempts a Comeback

Andrew Cuomo’s stunning, remorseless return to public life after sex scandal

Andrew M. Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace rather than face impeachment proceedings, is attempting to mount a comeback. Here's an excerpt from the New York Post's coverage:

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a return to public life Wednesday, saying he wanted to “move forward” — little more than a year after the threat of all-but-certain impeachment forced him to resign in disgrace.

In an eight-minute video posted online and sent to reporters by his spokesman, Cuomo, 64, stared straight into the camera, jawboning about his brief exile and his plans for the future.

Cuomo, wearing an open-collar dress shirt and jacket, said being forced from office allowed him to spend “time engaging in something called life,” adding with apparently unintended irony: “I had a lot to make up for.”

But without a shred of remorse or apology to his multiple accusers, Cuomo — who has denied any wrongdoing — added: “The past few months gave me a new perspective on politics, on people and even on life.”

Cuomo failed to address any aspect of his deadly 25 March 2020 directive nor its contribution to hundreds, if not thousands, of excess COVID deaths among New York nursing home residents. On a side note, as a matter of editorial policy, the timeline will prioritize coverage of Cuomo's COVID nursing home scandals and legal developments related to his other ongoing scandals.

As for Cuomo's political "comeback", we'll observe that Cuomo has proven one thing beyond any shadow of doubt in the past year. When the going gets tough, Andrew M. Cuomo quits. He proved it when he resigned rather than fight his pending impeachment from office. He proved again when he chickened out of running for another state office because it wasn't in the bag for him. And he continues to prove it with his ongoing efforts to evade culpability for the fatal consequences his deadly directive wrought.

In short, Cuomo lacks the integrity that would make him someone worth listening to. It's strange then that his comeback plan puts such priority on him hosting a podcast, which most people put in the entertainment category of life. It's as if he's hoping to replace the Emmy he lost with whatever participation trophies are handed out for podcasters.

26 September 2022: Chris Cuomo Sort-Of Acknowledges Breakdown of Journalism Ethics

‘Way Too Much of a Conflict’: Kara Swisher Confronts Chris Cuomo on Advising His Brother While at CNN

Chris Cuomo, the hapless brother of the resigned-in-disgrace former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo, was confronted by podcast host Kara Swisher over his journalism ethics in using his CNN platform to boost his brother's political interests.

The discussion, which was published Monday, did not have an easy lift-off. Swisher first asked Cuomo to talk about the “problematic” aspect of his lighthearted interviews with his brother during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The hindsight 2020 for me is that if I had known that a grudge would be harbored,” Cuomo said. “Because if we’re giving a fair reckoning, not many people spoke up loudly in the media about disapproving of my brother being on during that time. They did so later. And I think that is something that needs to be owned as well. The reason that they didn’t come out in the moment was because it was very popular and powerful.”

Throughout the conversation, Cuomo defended his interviews with his brother while dismissing critics who argued they represented a conflict of interest.

Cuomo claimed there was “complete transparency” and his interviews with his brother were “the right call” in the context of the times, but he also curiously admitted they should have been considered a conflict “ab initio” — from the beginning.

Or as any independent observer would recognize, Chris Cuomo's interviews with his brother were an embarrassment from Day 1 and should never have been tolerated by any serious broadcast news outfit because of the inherent journalism conflict of interest involved.

21 September 2022: Cuomo Won't Testify Before Congress About COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Andrew Cuomo ducks House invite to testify about his nursing home deaths scandal

Andrew M. Cuomo has turned down an opportunity to voluntarily come clean about the role of his deadly 25 March 2020 directive in contributing to excess COVID deaths in New York's nursing homes during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ignored an invitation to testify Wednesday at a congressional hearing focused on COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the coronavirus last week publicly asked Cuomo to appear to answer questions about his 2020 order requiring nursing homes to take coronavirus-positive patients.

“We asked him to testify at this very hearing and he still to this day has not even responded,” said Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who tweeted a letter addressed to Cuomo asking him to appear.

“He’s not participating,” Scalise said. “He didn’t even feel that he owed those victims a response to the questions we had for him.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told The Post that Republicans intend to use subpoena powers to investigate Cuomo’s order and his administration’s admitted subsequent coverup of death statistics if the GOP retakes the House in the November midterm elections.

Andrew M. Cuomo can reasonably expect to face legal problems related to his fateful choices as New York's governor for years to come and his attempts to evade their consequences.

21 September 2022: Cuomo Whines About Political Pals Who Defriended Him

Andrew Cuomo opens up about the ‘political friends’ who abandoned him

It says a lot about Andrew M. Cuomo's loss of power that this story was reported by New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams. Here's the main thrust of the resigned-in-disgrace governor's complaints:

Our ex-governor who never played nice just sent me flowers. He’s now being more nicer.

Now that Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit about his sexual harassment allegations, I asked what friends stood by him.

“Nobody. It was tough. Traumatizing. Biden, a friend 20 years, not knowing details, immediately said about me, ‘He’s got to go.’ Biden had troubles years before and I stood by him. Gave him the benefit of the doubt. It was heartbreaking to see him trash me without reading one page, making one phone call.

“Pelosi? Please. I know her 30 years. Her daughter worked for me. Obama? He’s been tough. When troubles come you like to think you’re different. You’re not. Enemies and haters accumulate. Schumer, Gillibrand, pals working in the state, friends I respected, fell like dominos. Lose your power and heartless politicians read the tea leaves. You’re dead. Over. Pols grab another piece of meat. The phrase ‘political friends’ is an oxymoron.”

And yet, he doesn't think he's done:

“Look, my interest is public service. There are no term limits so I can make another go in four years. I’m someone who delivers. And who knows, could be there’s nobody to beat me. Also who knows — maybe by then I’ll be sweeter.”

Will being "sweeter" in four years help him avoid accountability for all the excess COVID deaths resulting from his deadly 25 March 2020 directive?

14 September 2022: Ex-Aide Sues Cuomo, DeRosa Over Alleged Sexual Harassment

Ex-aide Charlotte Bennett sues Cuomo, DeRosa over alleged sexual harassment

It has always just been a matter of time before Andrew M. Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace as New York's governor rather than face impeachment, was sued by more of the women who alleged he sexually harassed them while serving as governor. This report covers the civil case being launched by the second woman to allege sexual harassment abuse on the part of Cuomo. Here's the introduction:

A former assistant to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo filed a discrimination suit against him Wednesday — that alleges he once joked about getting investigated for sexual harassment over an incident involving her.

Charlotte Bennett’s Manhattan federal court filing claims that during a June 5, 2020, meeting in Cuomo’s office, he made a crack about how watching her COVID-19 mask move when she breathed reminded him of the monsters in the movie ‘”Predator.”

After Bennett “laughed uncomfortably,” Cuomo allegedly foresaw the consequences.

“If I were investigated for sexual harassment, I would have to say I told her she looked like a monster,” he said, according to the suit.

Bennett’s suit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges that Cuomo repeatedly subjected her to humiliating sexual harassment and tried to smear her as a liar when she went public.

The next excerpt better describes Bennett's legal complaint:

Bennett’s 60-page complaint alleges when she worked for Cuomo between May 2019 and June 2020, he “subjected her to sexualized comments about her appearance, assigned her humiliating and demeaning tasks, and beginning in early June 2020, subjected her to invasive and unwanted questions about her personal life, romantic and sexual relationships, and history as a survivor of sexual assault.”

“He told her he was ‘lonely,’” wanted a girlfriend who lived in Albany, and was willing to date someone over the age of 21 years old,” the suit says.

“Cuomo’s comments and behavior were unwelcome and Ms. Bennett reasonably perceived them to constitute a sexual advance.”

Bennett says she “promptly” complained to Cuomo’s then-chief of staff, co-defendant Judith DesRosiers. But instead of “taking appropriate corrective measures,” DesRosiers transferred Bennett to an “inferior position” on Cuomo’s health policy team.

Neither DesRosiers nor Judith Mogul, Cuomo’s special counsel at the time, interviewed Bennett until after she told other colleagues about Cuomo’s alleged harassment, either, according to the suit.

In addition, DesRosiers, Mogul and DeRosa allegedly violated state policy by failing to refer Bennett’s complaint to the Government Office of Employee Relations.

All three, DesRosiers, Mogul, and DeRosa are named as co-defendants with Andrew M. Cuomo in Bennett's lawsuit.

Cuomo is already defending allegations of sexual harassment in a civil case filed by a female New York state trooper back on 17 February 2022.

13 September 2022: Andrew Cuomo Accuses NY Attorney General Tish James of Misconduct

Andrew Cuomo accuses AG Tish James of misconduct in sex harassment probe

In the latest legal development since he resigned in disgrace as New York's governor, Andrew M. Cuomo has filed an ethics complaint against New York state attorney general Letitia "Tish" James. Here's an excerpt:

Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo filed an ethics complaint against Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday — alleging that she repeatedly violated attorney conduct rules in connection with the sexual harassment probe that forced him to resign under threat of impeachment last year.

In his latest attempt to avenge himself against his accusers, Cuomo said James had “an intolerable personal and political conflict of interest” and “engaged in a terrible and quite obvious manipulation of facts, evidence and the law” during and after her blockbuster investigation....

Cuomo’s 48-page letter to the state First Judicial Department’s Attorney Grievance Committee rehashed many of the same arguments that his defense lawyer, Rita Glavin, made during a series of news conferences following his Aug. 10, 2021, resignation.

But that doesn't mean it was a total rehash of Cuomo's tired claims.

... he also seized on an exclusive, front-page report in The Post last year that revealed how a state police bodyguard allegedly spotted the then-governor and his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, “making out on the sidewalk like high schoolers.”

Cuomo accused James of intentionally including “inflammatory hearsay” testimony even though she “knew she had directly contrary information and chose not to release it.”

Aside from that, it mostly was a rehash of Cuomo's tired claims, in which Cuomo also attacked the independent lawyers who conducted the probe for the attorney general:

In addition to targeting James, Cuomo’s letter to the Grievance Committee alleges misconduct by the two outside lawyers she hired to conduct the investigation that concluded he sexually harassed 11 women, including nine current or former state workers.

Cuomo alleged that the lawyers — former acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim and Anne Clark, an expert in employment discrimination — exhibited “bias” and misled the public with a 168-page report that “deliberately omitted evidence contradicting allegations of sexual harassment and undermining witness and complainant credibility.”

The report concludes with the AG's office's response:

In a prepared statement, the AG’s Office said, “Attorney General James, Joon Kim, and Anne Clark hold themselves to the highest ethical standards.”

“Mr. Cuomo resigned after an independent investigation revealed that he preyed on multiple women who worked for him. New Yorkers are ready to move forward and close this sordid chapter in our state’s history,” the statement added.

Andrew M. Cuomo chose to resign rather than face impeachment proceedings where he could have loudly argued his claims.

8 September 2022: Cuomo’s COVID-19 Policy Incompetent

Opinion - Cuomo’s New York COVID-19 Policy Incompetent

This opinion piece by W.R. Daniel Bull appeared in Oswego State University's Oswegonian student newspaper on 8 September 2022. Here's an excerpt:

When the number of reported COVID-19 cases started to rise, Cuomo put the state of New York under lockdown. Schools were closed and students were forced to learn over Zoom; businesses were closed and some had to deliver their products. The number of rising cases seemed to have slowed down over the following months, and Cuomo would be declared a national hero by the political left. His leadership during the pandemic was often compared to that of former president Donald Trump in a negative light. He televised press conferences, in which he often talked about his family and other aspects of his personal life, seemingly to comfort New Yorkers. He would end up winning an Emmy for these.

But was his leadership really worthy of praise? In the year since he left office, I don’t think he was really at all competent. One thing that bugged me was how he handled schools. My last in person day of high school was March 13, 2020. Cuomo was hesitant to close school for the rest of the year. I will be embarrassed to admit, but I naively thought that I would be able to go back to school before June 2020. Given the obvious evidence to the contrary, I know that makes me look stupid, but what I do not understand is why Cuomo waited so long to keep schools closed when other governors decided to close them for the rest of the year early on.

Aside from his sheer incompetence over handling schools, what really soured my opinion over Cuomo was his policy on nursing homes. Hospitals were quickly being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, to the point in which a navy hospital ship was dispatched to New York harbor. In an effort to alleviate the stress on the hospitals, nursing homes were ordered to take in COVID-19 patients. By March 2020, it was established that COVID-19 was both an airborne illness and among the most vulnerable to serious illness or death from COVID-19 were the elderly. This order was revoked in May, but the damage was done. The following January, it was later revealed that the Cuomo administration deliberately undercounted and withheld the true number of nursing home deaths, fearful that they would be investigated by the Department of Justice under former president Donald Trump.

The timeline indicates the fear of being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice was a complete afterthought. In truth, as best as we can tell from the available evidence, the motive for Andrew M. Cuomo to cover up COVID nursing home deaths dates to 19 March 2020, when Cuomo's literary agent first took calls from book publishers about a potential book deal related to his management of the growing pandemic emergency. Less than a week later, Cuomo's panic at how quickly SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infections were spreading prompted him to implement his infamous deadly 25 March 2020 directive. To score the biggest book deal possible, Cuomo needed to have his pandemic policies appear to be as successful as possible, which he already knew would be undermined by excess deaths resulting from his deadly directive. The first step in the cover-up then came with Cuomo's 2 April 2020 gift of legal immunity for COVID deaths to nursing home operators.

Without that deal, the risk of liability exposure for nursing home operators would give them every reason to both resist going along with the deadly directive and to directly point to deaths caused by exposure of nursing home residents to COVID-infected patients being dumped out of New York hospitals because of the directive. With the deal, they would keep silent. The deal thus initiated the cover-up, which Cuomo then used to bank the biggest possible book deal he could while promoting his national political prospects.

What could have been had Cuomo's personal ethics were not so corrupt? We'll never know, but for his part, Bull describes what could have been had only Cuomo come clean:

I would have slightly forgiven Cuomo if he had said that he made a serious error in judgment and apologized to the public, but instead he was more worried about the backlash to the revelations and claimed that the whole episode was politically motivated. He was not sorry, and he was never held accountable. This was a man that the media wanted us to praise, but he was incompetent at best! He looked good in front of a camera, but he did not know what he was doing in regards to schools and his callous disregard for New York’s elderly was despicable.

At a minimum, Cuomo's despicable acts could reasonably be described as criminally negligent manslaughter under New York state law. But then, so would many others holding power within New York's state government for their roles in helping implement and enforce the deadly directive. We think Cuomo has only so far escaped accountability in this matter because if he does, many of them will go down with him.

30 August 2022: Editorial - Don't Buy Cuomo’s Lame Claim He Was Booted Because of #MeToo ‘Excess’

Don’t buy Cuomo’s lame claim that he was booted because of #MeToo ‘excess’

The New York Post's editors aren't impressed by Andrew M. Cuomo's latest attempt to claim he's a victim. After reviewing Cuomo's sexual harassment history, the following excerpt discusses why Cuomo was really forced to resign as New York's governor:

More important, as we’ve long argued, his other transgressions were far worse — and by themselves provided overwhelming grounds for impeachment. At the top of the list: his order for nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients, knowing the virus would spread like “fire through dry grass,” as he put it.

And then Cuomo’s administration hid the actual number of nursing-home deaths for months. When the figures finally came out, analyses showed his order led to hundreds, if not thousands, of needless fatalities.

Meanwhile, with the truth under wraps, Cuomo snagged a $5 million book deal about his “leadership” during the pandemic, meaning he personally profited from the coverup. Plus, he used staff to write and sell the book, violating both the law and explicit promises he made to get an ethics clearance for the project.

Lawmakers may have been reluctant to impeach him on those grounds (even now Gov. Kathy Hochul has been slow to keep her vow to probe those scandals). But his govern-by-fear bullying had left him with few friends, and his fellow Democrats had no problem throwing the “believe all women” rule in Cuomo’s face: It was much like nabbing Al Capone on tax evasion.

Impeachment is a political process, not a judicial one. Whatever a court might make of the harassment charges, Andrew Cuomo has no one to blame for his downfall but himself.

The sexual harassment charges offered New York's elected leaders the means to "surgically" remove Cuomo from office while allowing them to maintain their own hold on power. In the end, Cuomo chose to quit rather than risk being held accountable for his other, more serious misdeeds.

27 August 2022: NJ's Handling of COVID at Veterans Homes Under Fresh Scrutiny

NJ's handling of COVID at veterans homes under fresh scrutiny — 41 new lawsuits filed

This report from 25 August 2022 summarizes the civil lawsuits filed by families of veterans who died of COVID in New Jersey's state government-operated nursing homes. The excerpts below are taken from a radio interview of NewJersey.com reporter Scott Fallon with WNYC host Sean Carlson:

Sean Carlson: Tell us a bit about who is suing the administration and what sorts of problems they're citing.

Scott Fallon: So we've already had about 190 families of veterans home residents who passed away that have sued the Murphy administration. Those lawsuits have been settled to a tune of $69 million. This month, 41 employees at the Menlo Park veterans home filed lawsuits against the Murphy administration, claiming that they got ill because of a lack of infection control measures, ill preparedness and a number of other claims.

[...]

Sean Carlson: What are the prospects of accountability here? These 41 lawsuits are not the first to deal with how New Jersey handled the pandemic at long-term care facilities. Are these going to change anything?

Scott Fallon: Generally, the lawsuits are all being settled out of court. So there will not be a day in court in which everything will be disclosed. Murphy has said for two years, many times, that he wants a "post mortem" on how his administration handled the pandemic, but he has yet to move on that at all. We even asked him [Tuesday] about it. And he said, again, it's a wait-and-see prospect, but he vows that it will happen.

There are three investigations going on, one by the (state) attorney general, one by the Department of Justice and one by the State Commissioner of Investigation. Where those stand, we don't know just yet. But nothing official has happened with them.

It has been months since any of the official criminal investigations have shown any visible signs of progress.

24 August 2022: One Year Gone: Andrew Cuomo Hiding 'In Shame', But 'Plotting' Return to Politics

This article was published on 20 August 2022, but it seemed more appropriate to feature on the one year anniversary of Cuomo's official exit from the New York state government's Executive Chamber.

Andrew Cuomo hiding ‘in shame’—but ‘plotting’ return to politics: sources

This report describes how Andrew M. Cuomo has become something of a hermit.

In just one year, Andrew Cuomo has gone from being the most powerful governor in the country — and at one time the ubiquitous hero of the 2020 pandemic — to the most elusive fallen star in the Hamptons.

In just one year, Andrew Cuomo has gone from being the most powerful governor in the country — and at one time the ubiquitous hero of the 2020 pandemic — to the most elusive fallen star in the Hamptons.

Other sources said that any “shame” he may have stems more from the anger he feels about losing his job — unfairly he believes — and regret about not fighting for it harder. They also speculated it’s fueling Cuomo’s disappearance from the public eye.

“He won’t show his face anywhere,” a longtime Hamptons insider who knows the Cuomo family said last week. “Chris [Cuomo’s disgraced younger brother] is out and about all the time. Matt Lauer did grosser things and you see him around all the time. But not Andrew. The feeling is that he has a lot of shame over what happened and he’s hiding.”

Cuomo's disappearance might have a lot more to do with his ongoing legal strategies to avoid being held accountable for his multiple alleged incidents of sexual harassment, not to mention his COVID nursing home deaths scandals. Avoiding the public to the extent he has provides a benefit in that it keeps from providing New York residents with more reasons to demand public officials act against him.

The report contains this analysis from two of Cuomo's more notable critics:

“We understood that it was a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” said Janice Dean, a senior meteorologist at the Fox News Channel who lost both her elderly in-laws to Covid as a result of what she termed Cuomo’s “killer nursing home order.” His March 2020 policy sent Covid-positive patients into nursing homes for 45 days. Thousands of seniors later died.

“He thought the hospitals were going to be overrun. He didn’t have a place to put [elderly patients]. We get that. Had he just met with family members, and talked to us, we would have forgiven him. Instead he capitalized on his popularity and wrote a book and won an Emmy. But to this day he’s never apologized,” Dean told The Post. “I really think it is a psychological trait of is that he doesn’t apologize. [He seems to think] nothing he does is a mistake. And everyone else is to blame. He’s the ‘victim’ here — both of the nursing home deaths and the sexual harassment allegations.”

Dem. Assemblyman Ron Kim — whose uncle died of coronavirus in a nursing home — was famously on the receiving end of the Cuomo temper in Feb. 2021 after, he said, the then-governor called him at home and threatened to “destroy” him if he didn’t help contain the damage over the administration’s cover-up of nursing home deaths.

“If he’d recognized mistakes were made and come clean, the public would have forgiven him,” Kim told The Post last week. “Instead he lied and covered it up. He wanted to control the narrative and his image.”

The report ends featuring a source who knew Cuomo's deceased father, Mario M. Cuomo, who served three full terms as New York's governor without resigning in disgrace. They describe strange behavior on the part of Andrew M. Cuomo:

The source said that Andrew always had big shoes to fill when it came to his father. Now, in exile from public life, he is literally wearing his pop’s shoes.

“He walks in his father’s shoes, I’ve seen it,” he said. “They’re black wingtip shoes. They give him strength.”

Since Andrew M. Cuomo apparently didn't inherit strong moral character from anyone in his family, it's a very weak substitute.

3 August 2022: Lawsuits Offer Look at Chaos in NJ Veterans Homes as COVID Soared, US DOJ Criminal Probe Is AWOL

Lies about deaths, orders not to wear masks: Lawsuits offer look at chaos in NJ veterans homes as COVID soared

With no sign of progress on the part of the Biden DOJ in its criminal probe of COVID deaths at New Jersey's state government-run nursing homes for veterans, civil lawsuits are now being filed. This portion of the report, which provides an overview of the legal claims behind the new lawsuites, follows a series of anecdotes of how medical care broke down at these facilities thanks to top-down mandates from the state government:

Employees of the troubled veterans home at Menlo Park have filed lawsuits alleging the state, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, the governor’s office, and administrators of the state-operated nursing home needlessly put them in harm’s way as COVID struck.

Accusing the state of being “grossly negligent, knowingly careless, and reckless,” while deviating from accepted standards of long-term care when the first threats of COVID began to appear, the complaints, filed earlier this month in Superior Court in Middlesex County, cited disciplinary threats and termination for wearing masks. The lawsuits also allege that state and nursing home administrators deliberately released misinformation on the number of cases as residents kept getting sick and died in droves.

They also charged that Menlo Park’s nursing staff was directed to cease testing residents for COVID after several residents tested positive, and forced presumably COVID-positive employees to work at the Menlo Park Home.

In some cases, according to the complaints, public statements were released that were at odds with information the department had in hand, according to internal emails.

Attorney Paul M. da Costa of Roseland, who filed the complaints, said the lawsuits seek “a full accounting” and full measure of justice.

“My clients were the epitome of health care heroes during the early days of COVID. They were in the eye of the storm and the state refused to give them a life jacket to try and survive the storm,” he said.

Two of the state’s veterans homes — the one in Menlo Park and a second in Paramus — reported some of the highest COVID-related death tolls in the nation. A third state-operated facility is in Vineland. Overall, COVID claimed the lives of more than 200 residents and staff in the veterans homes, according to the state.

The bizarre and counterproductive role of New Jersey's state government officials in either operating or directing medical care policies at these nursing homes is driven home by the following comment from attorney Paul da Costa:

Remarking that he has been asked many times “why in the world would the state direct employees from wearing masks”, da Costa said there were people making those decisions “who were simply unqualified and or unfit.”

The documented incidents of recklessness on the part of state government officials at these nursing homes for veterans are why the Biden DOJ has been unable to sweep NJ Governor Phil Murphy's COVID nursing home deaths scandals away. Its criminal probe however has stalled, with the DOJ failing to provide any indication of progress in its investigation since late 2021.

18 August 2022: Editorial - Time for NY's New Ethics Commission to Go After Cuomo's $5.2M Book Deal Profit

Our view: New NY ethics commission should pursue Cuomo book funds

The editorial board of Auburn, NY's Citizen read through the legal decision that terminated the now defunct Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) lawsuit seeking to force Andrew M. Cuomo to give up the $5.2 million in proceeds he personally pocketed from his pandemic "leadership" book deal. They find the judge who ruled in favor of Cuomo opened the door for New York's replacement ethics commission to go after the resigned-in-disgrace governor's profits.

Although former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his small legal/public relations team attempted to spin a judge's ruling this week as a complete vindication, the truth is it was actually just a final blow to legitimacy of the commission he long controlled.

More importantly, state Judge Denise A. Hartman made clear that there's still a path for New York state to go after the disgraced ex-governor's shamefully obtained book proceeds.

After Cuomo resigned in 2021 and was left with virtually no support within state government, the long-troubled Joint Commission on Public Ethics members made an attempt to save some of their dignity by ordering him to forfeit the $5 million he received for his book about COVID-19 leadership, authored in the middle of the pandemic. That same commission had previously cleared the governor to do the book project, which wasn't a surprise given the influence he wielded over it throughout his administration.

Cuomo sued to challenge the order, and in a decision that makes complete sense, he won because JCOPE failed to follow its due process procedures in arriving at the decision to go after his book money.

What the judge didn't rule on, however, is whether Cuomo's book project itself was legal. She went out her way to write that a newly created state government ethics commission that replaced JCOPE could take action.

“If, upon a review of JCOPE's actions, the new commission decides to pursue action against Cuomo, proceeds with the adjudicatory hearing, and determines that a violation has occurred, the new Commission may then impose a civil penalty against him,” Hartman wrote.

We hope that's exactly what they do.

This aspect of the judge's ruling has not gotten much attention in other media outlets. We'll see soon enough whether New York's new ethics commission was paying attention.

16 August 2022: Judge Rules Against JCOPE in Cuomo's Book Deal Case

Judge rules against state ethics panel in Cuomo's book deal case

Resigned-in-disgrace former NY governor Andrew M. Cuomo will be allowed to keep the proceeds of his $5.2 million pandemic "leadership" book deal following the decision of a state judge. Here's ann excerpt of this report, which describes the legal reasoning:

A state Supreme Court justice on Tuesday ruled against the former state ethics commission in its court battle seeking to force ex-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to repay $5.1 million he received for writing a book about his administration's early response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Acting state Supreme Court Justice Denise A. Hartman's 17-page ruling upholding Cuomo's petition to scuttle the actions of the former Joint Commission on Public Ethics — which was disbanded last month — also found the commission had violated due process when it sought to undo an earlier approval of the book deal by a staff attorney.

"Here JCOPE issued the approval for the outside activity, then unilaterally determined wrongdoing, then withdrew the approval, and finally imposed the disgorgement penalty — all without the opportunity for a due process hearing explicitly provided for under the procedures set forth in Executive Law," the judge wrote. "To allow JCOPE to bypass the administrative procedures set forth in the statute would implicate due process protections."

The legal battle between the former ethics commission and Cuomo, who resigned a year ago after the state attorney general's office issued a report concluding he had engaged in workplace misconduct and sexual harassment involving multiple women, has centered on whether his alleged use of state employees to assist him in writing the book had violated state ethics rules.

The decision does not address any aspect of whether Cuomo's use of state government employees and resources to produce the book from which he personally profited violated state law. As such, Cuomo could still face criminal charges should the state attorney general's probe proceed.

The matter does however close the book, so to speak, on the failed institution of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), which Cuomo created and which, under his control, greenlighted the book deal in the first place. The commission's attempts to recover the book deal funds took place after Cuomo's corrupting influence had been lifted after his resignation.