26 July 2022: House GOP Demands Records on New York COVID Nursing Home Deaths

House GOP demands records on New York COVID nursing home deaths

GOP lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives have requested NY replacement governor Kathy Hochul provide records related to the implementation of Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2022 directive. Here's the introduction to this report:

House Republicans are demanding that Gov. Kathy Hochul turn over data and records regarding coronavirus-related deaths in New York nursing homes — particularly information surrounding a controversial Cuomo-era policy that required the facilities to admit recovering COVID-19 patients.

The request comes while Hochul faces criticism for slow-walking her own “independent” probe of New York’s early response to the deadly COVID-19 outbreak, when disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo — under whom she served as lieutenant governor — was in charge.

The report lists the information the lawmakers are seeking Hochul to produce by 9 August 2022:

– Nursing home patient deaths (including nursing residents who died in hospitals) from Jan. 1, 2020, to present. More than 15,000 New York nursing home residents have died from COVID-19.

– All state-issued guidance, directives, advisories or executive orders regarding hospital discharges to nursing homes or any and all other types of assisted living facilities.

– Underlying information, documents and research used by the state health department to draft the July 6, 2020, report titled “Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis.” The much-maligned in-house report insisted state policies did not contribute to COVID-related nursing home deaths.

– Communications between Cuomo’s office and the health department regarding COVID-19 mitigation efforts in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

– Documents and communications between state health department officials and nursing home administrators relating to the implementation of a controversial March 25, 2020, “must admit” order to accept recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals during the worst of the pandemic. Some studies suggested the policy contributed to nursing home infections and deaths because the facilities lacked the ability to isolate or quarantine patients or had adequate personal protective equipment to control the spread.

– Information exchanged between the governor’s office and the US Justice Department regarding COVID-19 in nursing homes. The Justice Department has investigated Cuomo’s handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic, including whether the publishing of his book about the outbreak affected policy decisions.

The request confirms the scandals related to Andrew M. Cuomo's signature pandemic policy are not going away anytime soon.

24 July 2022: Months Late and Under Pressure, Hochul Announces Semi-Independent Probe of Cuomo Pandemic Policies

We're catching up with several stories that came out on 20 July 2022, following replacement NY Governor Kathy Hochul's long delayed announcement of an independent probe of Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic response policies, including his deadly 25 March 2020 directive.

Kathy Hochul launches Cuomo probe, findings unlikely until after election

Hochul's action comes nearly two weeks after several newspaper editorials slammed her for her lack of action in following through her pledge to launch an independent probe of Cuomo's pandemic policies. The following excerpt describes the delay and the scope of the probe:

Gov Kathy Hochul on Wednesday initiated an independent probe of the Cuomo administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic — but even preliminary results aren’t expected until after the November elections.

Critics, including nursing home advocates, have accused Democrat Hochul — who faces off against Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Suffolk) in the governor’s race this November — of slow-walking her promised no-holds barred analysis of the administration’s handling of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.

The concern is fueled by Hochul having been then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lieutenant governor during the health crisis — with critics saying that potentially makes her complicit in any findings.

Hochul announced she issued a “request for proposals” to hire a firm to conduct an “After Action Review” that includes looking at the controversial transfer of recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals into nursing homes and interactions between state, local and federal officials during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020.

“We’re going to be covering the transfer policies related to medical procedures and hospitals. And patient facilities. The transfer of individuals, vulnerable populations into congregate settings, homeless shelters, group homes, nursing homes, jails,” Hochul said.

The excerpt contains the key words that explain why Hochul, who assumed power on 24 August 2021, delayed initiating the probe for so long: "preliminary results aren’t expected until after the November elections". That's a clear sign she expects the results will be damaging to the interests of her political party.

That's because both legislators and dozens of state government officials appointed by Cuomo were involved in the development and implementation of Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive. Pushing the start of the probe so late would specifically protect the interests of legislators who were involved, who now won't have to face voters over their roles until after the election.

Hochul announces pandemic after-action review

This report describes how the independent probe, which is being called an "after-action review", will be set up. Here's an exceprt:

The request for proposal (RFP) — the formal request for applicants — for the "After-Action" review was posted a few hours after the governor spoke at a news conference.

The RFP listed a number of topics germane to the state response to the pandemic, including policies that addressed the spread in "congregate settings" such as hospitals, nursing homes and prisons; procurement of needed equipment and the selection of the private companies that sought to provide it; the interaction between state government and federal as well as local officials; the impact on the education system; protections afforded to essential workers; and more.

Many of those issues proved to be controversial under the leadership of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo — especially his administration's handling of COVID-19 infections in nursing homes. He resigned his office last August.

Hochul emphasized the importance of an independent entity taking on the task, and said she expects initial findings to be completed in six months and estimates a completed review will be ready next year.

There's nothing in how the probe is being set up that would have stopped it from having been established months ago. Hochul's long delay in even taking this action appears purposefully designed to prevent any findings from being reported before the November 2022 elections.

Outside review planned for New York's COVID-19 response

This report highlights important aspects of how the probe is being established that will limit its effectiveness. The following excerpt explains:

The governor, who is running for her first full term in November and won the recent June Democratic gubernatorial primary, promised in mid-March to eventually launch a review of the state’s COVID-19 response.

It's unclear what new information this probe could uncover. The auditor will lack subpoena power, for example. That's in contrast to an investigation, overseen by James, into sexual harassment allegations against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow Democrat.

The auditor will also report directly to Hochul’s office.

“In this regard, the flow of information is controlled by the governor’s office, not an independent commission,” elder abuse attorney John Dalli said.

The Democratic-led Legislature has failed to approve a bill to launch a bipartisan commission with subpoena power to probe New York's COVID-19 response in nursing homes.

The lack of subpoena power will allow state government officials to avoid being deposed under oath. That will limit the auditor's ability to compel discovery about the actions of state government officials in contributing to the excess deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of New York's nursing home residents during the period Cuomo's deadly directive was in effect.

We think the bottom line is the probe is more an exercise in damage control than it is about fully getting to the bottom of Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals.

22 July 2022: NY Attorney General's Probe of Cuomo Pandemic Book Deal Stalled

Critics blast AG Letitia James for not releasing findings in probe on Cuomo’s COVID book

On 9 July 2022, the timeline noted that there was little sign of progress in New York State Attorney General Letitia James' criminal probe of Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal. This new report indicates public ethics advocates and others are now asking why has the probe stalled:

State Attorney General Letitia James opened a criminal probe 15 months ago into whether ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo illegally used state employees and other taxpayer resources to work on his controversial profit-making $5 million pandemic memoir.

Now ethics watchdogs and families of COVID-19 nursing home victims are asking, ‘Where’s the beef?’

“There is no evidence of an active investigation that I’m aware of. So far as I can ascertain there is no action by the attorney general,” said Gary Lavine, a Senate Republican appointee to the new state commission on Ethics in Lobbying and Government, who previously served on the Joint Commission on Public Ethics....

James’ office said the Cuomo book probe is “ongoing” but declined further comment....

James received a referral from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli in April of 2021 to “investigate the alleged commission of any indictable offense or offenses” related to the Cuomo book. The comptroller releases funds for the state payroll.

The report states it took the state attorney general's office just five months to complete its probe of allegations of Andrew M. Cuomo's sexual harassment of multiple women.

The lack of progress in the AG's investigation of the Cuomo pandemic book deal suggests James isn't taking it as seriously.

20 July 2022: Cuomo Spends $93,211 on Poll to Tell Him He's a Loser

Here’s the $93K proof Andrew Cuomo tried to make a political comeback

Although this report was published on 18 July 2022, the timeline is just catching up to it now. It has a "too good to check" quality about it, but it's real and it's glorious! Here's a streamlined excerpt from the article covering the major details:

Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo paid a veteran pollster $93,000 as he weighed a political comeback — potentially a challenge of Gov. Kathy Hochul — this year, a new filing reveals.

Cuomo tapped the firm Expedition Strategies to test the waters, with a payment of $93,211 recorded on May 31....

“When you spend $93,000 on a poll, your intention is to run unless the results tell you otherwise,” said Rob Cole, a GOP consultant who served as a top aide to former three-term New York Gov. George Pataki.

State Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs said, “I don’t think you poll unless you’re looking to run in a future election. If he polled in the governor’s race, it showed Kathy Hochul was strong and one would be dissuaded from running.”

A Cuomo insider confirmed that the ex-governor was mulling a comeback and his campaign committee hired a pollster to see where he stood.

“He was trying to understand the landscape in terms of the Democratic primary and the general election,” the source, who requested anonymity, said.

The source claimed there was “a path” for a Cuomo to mount a comeback but winning was not a “certainty.”

“If you’re looking at 50-50, you can’t do it,” the source said.

To put the timing of this poll into context, Andrew M. Cuomo had until 5:00 PM on 31 May 2022 to file 45,000 signatures with New York's Board of Elections to run as an independent candidate in the 2022 elections. That didn't happen as Cuomo chickened out from running after reviewing his $93,211 worth of poll results, which confirmed he is a loser.

14 July 2022: Republican NY Governor Candidate Calls for Independent Probe of Cuomo's COVID Nursing Home Deaths Scandals

Lee Zeldin vows special prosecutor on New York nursing home COVID deaths if elected governor

Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals were always going to be a political campaign issue in 2022. However, replacement NY Governor Kathy Hochul's leadership failure to follow through on her pledge of an independent probe into those scandals has created a valid point of attack for her opponent against her in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

Here's how Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for NY governor, indicates he would keep the promise Hochul hasn't:

Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Suffolk) is vowing to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes on “day one” if elected over Gov. Kathy Hochul this November.

“The special prosecutor should pursue justice for thousands of New York families who have lost their loved ones and should not give up that fight,” the GOP hopeful told the Post Wednesday.

“If a special prosecutor determines that no criminal statutes were violated then so be it so long as it’s a thorough investigation that seeks out the truth,” he added.

Such an investigation would focus on actions taken by ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the early months of the pandemic, including a controversial March 2020 directive that critics say contributed to the death toll among nursing home residents.

Zeldin said that he would look to a current or former district attorney to conduct the investigation, which he expected could take somewhere around six months or a year to complete.

Had Hochul acted when she became New York's replacement governor in August 2021, the much-needed probe would be nearly finished by now. But she didn't, so its going to drag out much longer than it should ever have had to.

For Hochul, this is the political equivalent of an own-goal in soccer.

12 July 2022: Cuomo Legal Defense Team Ramps Up Activity in State Trooper's Sexual Harassment Case

Cuomo legal team issues subpoenas over trooper groping lawsuit

There's been a legal development in the civil lawsuit filed by a female New York State Trooper who alleges she was sexually harassed by Andrew M. Cuomo while he was New York's governor. Cuomo's legal team has issued subpoenas to New York's state attorney general and the New York Assembly's Judiciary Committee, both of which investigated the allegations.

The excerpt below recaps the basic story:

Lawyers for disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo are ramping up for a legal fight against a state trooper who accused him of groping her — issuing sweeping document requests from probes conducted by state Attorney General Letitia James and the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

The Judiciary Committee conducted an impeachment inquiry of Cuomo and issued a blistering report last November that accused him of being a sexual harasser who misused state resources while writing a self-congratulatory book during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Assembly panel has received notification of a subpoena from Cuomo’s lawyers requesting all underlying documentation collected as part of its probe, legislative sources told The Post.

But Cuomo's legal team is going to be especially busy, as this next excerpt indicates:

The Trooper case mentions a slew of other women who accused Cuomo of mistreating them and his lawyers intend to depose all of them, according to court papers.

“We are prepared to discuss the need for more than ten depositions…. To refute allegations specific only to Trooper 1, we must depose a number of current and former New York State Troopers,” Glavin wrote to the judge.

“The amended Complaint, however, makes specific additional allegations about Governor Cuomo regarding eleven women—lifting from the Attorney General’s Report—which necessitates the defense deposing those women to refute the allegations.

“Had the Complaint focused solely on Plaintiff Trooper 1, and not included allegations about ten additional women, we could have agreed to take no more than the ten depositions.”

Trooper 1’s lawyers object to deposing the other women accusers.

“Those witnesses already gave testimony to the attorney general’s office under oath. They’ve already been deposed,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Valdi Licul.

The case is expected to take months to play itself out.

12 July 2022: Editorial - Why Is Kathy Hochul Reneging on Her Promised Probe into Cuomo’s Nursing Home Scandal?

Why is Kathy Hochul reneging on her promised probe into Cuomo’s nursing home scandal?

The editors of the New York Post are calling for replacement NY governor Kathy Hochul to make good on her pledge to probe Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals. We're going to present the full editorial because of how well it dovetails with what we've covered and analyzed in the timeline:

Why is Gov. Hochul reneging on her months-old pledge to get to the bottom of ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s care-home scandals? Where is the promised probe?

At the behest of hospital lobbyists early in the pandemic, Cuomo’s Health Department ordered nursing and adult-care homes to admit COVID-positive patients that hospitals wanted to dump. More than 9,000 wound up being pushed in, and statistical analysis suggests that led to hundreds if not thousands of added deaths.

Team Cuomo not only refused to take responsibility for care-home deaths, it actively covered up the true numbers and bent state laws to keep key facts hidden. It even withheld data from the feds.

Among other things, letting the truth out would have quashed Cuomo’s $5 million book deal monetizing his pandemic “leadership,” which suggests the coverup crosses the line for a corruption case even under the high bar the Supreme Court has set for such charges — if anyone properly investigates.

At the same time, per a new report, Cuomo & Co. “successfully coerced” the ethics review “with very minimal due diligence” of his book deal. The gov’s loyalists at the now-replaced state “ethics” panel even covered up that report, though inquiries from The Post led to it being posted by the new Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government’s website Friday afternoon.

Perhaps other lingering Cuomo loyalists have somehow stalled the care-home probe. Or maybe Hochul fears she’ll be tainted by Cuomo’s wrongdoing, perhaps because she didn’t immediately fire Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who’s at the heart of the horror.

Whatever the reason, whomever she’s protecting, it’s an outrage. New Yorkers who lost loved ones want answers, and the gov promised to get them. She needs to follow through, no matter who looks bad in the end.

We think the Post's editors need to think bigger in terms of who benefits from Hochul's leadership failure to follow through her pledge to establish an independent investigation of Cuomo's pandemic-related scandals. The list of people who either gained unfair benefits for testing and medical treatment or participated in enabling Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive includes state judges and legislators.

For example, that bigger list includes people like the Cuomo-appointed New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, who just announced her resignation on 11 July 2022. She was a participant in Cuomo's special priority COVID testing program in 2020 when COVID tests were in such exceptionally short supply they were being rationed. Cuomo violated the public's interests by making sure his political friends and family members could get special treatment at a time when almost no-one in the public could.

The even bigger problem includes hundreds of lower-level state government officials who participated in Cuomo's "pay-for-play"-like pandemic privilege schemes or who played roles in implementing Cuomo's disastrous pandemic policies.

By and large, making these people face up to what they did to enable Andrew M. Cuomo's worst pandemic scandals through subjecting their actions to an independent probe means imposing major damage on her own political party. We think the desire to avoid that outcome is what has motivated Hochul's decisions to not take steps to keep her promise.

10 July 2022: Editorial - Gov. Hochul Needs to Make Her Promised Independent Pandemic Response Review Happen

Look back: Gov. Hochul needs to get a promised independent pandemic response review started

The editors of the New York Daily News are growing impatient with replacement NY Governor Kathy Hochul. In the following excerpt from their editorial, they call for her to finally launch her promised independent review of Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic response.

A flattering April New York Time opinion piece says that at a “working dinner” headed by Gov. Hochul in late March, Gov. Cuomo’s COVID-19 response came up: “Surrounded by her commissioners of health and homeland security, the head of her labor department and her counsel and her head of operations, she said she wanted a deep dive into everything that had happened — ‘the good, the bad and the ugly.’ And she wanted it on her desk in two weeks.”

In May, Hochul, asked about the idea, replied: “Actually, we have outside consultants who are going to be working with us to examine every aspect of the pandemic,” she said. “The good, the bad, the ugly. Because I have to be able to leave future governors what was learned.”

It is now nearing mid-July, and, as Gotham Gazette reminds us, there’s no scintilla of progress. No consultants have been retained. No review is underway.

COVID killed nearly 70,000 New Yorkers, making it the worst cataclysm in our modern history. The deadliest period was the start, when a lack of coordination between the city and state almost certainly cost lives. Nor has Cuomo’s order directing recovering COVID patients be returned to nursing homes — or his failure to properly report the numbers of nursing-home deaths — been fully explored.

When, in an endorsement interview last month, we asked Hochul what was taking so long, she answered: “I wouldn’t say it’s taking so long, because we’re still dealing with the pandemic. We don’t have closure. We’re not done.” When we pointed out that it might never be done — and that no lookback prevents public servants from continuing to respond to the pandemic today, she replied: “Well, it is going. We are starting to identify the key players. What I want to do is have independence, so the results of the analysis has (sic.) integrity.”

Assessing the response to a disaster this massive is urgent. The work should have begun months ago. Gov, stop making excuses and start making it happen.

Hochul's alternative hypothesis for explaining her lack of action, implying that state officials aren't capable of both doing their jobs and participating in an independent probe of their past actions, doesn't hold water. If she really believed that to be true, she should be doing everything in her power to remove these individuals from their positions of authority because they're clearly too incompetent to be allowed to continue in them. She isn't, because she doesn't believe that.

We suspect the real issue is that such a review would impair the hold Hochul's political party has over New York's state government. That's because implementing Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic response, including his deadly 25 March 2020 directive, involved the participation of hundreds of members of their party. A more coherent explanation for Hochul's lack of action is that she believes an independent probe that her party cannot entirely control will damage their interests.

Regardless, as the editors state, it's time for her to stop making excuses and start acting like a responsible leader who quickly follows through on their promises.

10 July 2022: Editorial - JCOPE's Last Laugh

Editorial: JCOPE's last laugh

We're featuring an extended excerpt of this editorial, because in addition to succinctly describing the contents of New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), it also serves as the now defunct commission's epitaph:

The report by the firm Hogan Lovells, released a few hours after the vote, offers a crystalline reminder of why the watchdog entity was maligned throughout its 11-year tenure: JCOPE was dysfunctional and wholly in the thrall of the Executive Chamber.

In the case of the book deal, the panel's staff can take a tiny wedge of cover from the fact that Mr. Cuomo's team — including taxpayer-funded loyalists who should have been devoting themselves to managing the pandemic — used obfuscation, deceit and pressure tactics to get their way. Two examples: In framing its formal request, the Executive Chamber misrepresented the focus of the book and neglected to mention that 70,000 words of what was planned as an 80,000-word book had already been assembled.

But to say the staff, especially JCOPE Deputy General Counsel Martin Levine, was too credulous in this matter strains the definition of the word to its breaking point. The report notes the many red flags that JCOPE ignored, including the noxious ethical swamp of a top state official personally profiting from his account of a health crisis he was still in the middle of managing. When a JCOPE commissioner asked Mr. Levine for a copy of the publishing contract and other information, Mr. Levine allowed himself to be talked out of it by Mr. Cuomo's special counsel Judith Mogul and Linda Lacewell, who at the time was ostensibly serving not as the governor's book agent but as superintendent of the state Division of Financial Services.

When more commissioners pressed for details, the panel's staff and JCOPE Chairman Michael Rozen — a Cuomo appointee, of course — treated them like nosy children. The staff's informal approval of the book project was zapped to the Executive Chamber at 5:51 p.m. on July 16. The manuscript was sent to the publisher less than 10 minutes later. Except for Mr. Rozen, the ethics panel's commissioners appeared to be completely out of the loop.

Compounding the panel's slapdash work was the fact that it never asked Mr. Cuomo to submit an Outside Activity Approval Form that would have detailed, for example, the number of hours in each day the governor planned to work on the book — which could have been tricky, since the governor and his assistants had almost finished the manuscript even before receiving approval.

The commissioners and staff of the newborn Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government need to read the full report, and ask themselves one key question: Is it any wonder the Cuomo administration eventually sank under the weight of scandal, considering that the people who were supposed to police its ethical performance were so utterly compromised and servile?

Indeed. What the editors of the Albany Times-Union describe is a consequence of one party rule under New York's version of a political strongman. Serious reforms are needed for the state government.

9 July 2022: Report - Ethics Commission Staff Bungled Cuomo's Book Approval

Report: Ethics commission staff bungled Cuomo's book approval

This report goes into greater detail on how Andrew M. Cuomo successfully "coerced" the staff of New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) into approving his request make a deal to publish his pandemic "leadership" book, for which he would personally pocket $5.2 million.

Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo dictated the process by which his controversial 2020 book was approved while state ethics commission staff allowed misrepresentations to go unchecked, according to an internal report released Thursday.

The staff at the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, charged with verifying that Cuomo's lucrative authorship followed state rules, were pressured into accepting demands by top Cuomo aides. And as "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic" was rapidly greenlit, ethics commissioners questioning the process were denied key information, the report found.

The report was authored by the law firm Hogan Lovells, which was retained by the commission to examine what went wrong during the approval process and to gather lessons for the future. The decision to make public the firm's report — which had been confidential — was the last act of the commission, which ceased to exist as of Friday. A provision in April's state budget agreement replaced it with a new ethics body....

All state employees seeking to earn substantial outside income were required to receive approval from the ethics agency. The Hogan Lovells report concluded that during the approval process for Cuomo's book, "the Executive Chamber overpowered JCOPE, and JCOPE failed to assert itself as a watchdog agency against the governor."

"Rather than JCOPE telling the Executive Chamber what information it needed to provide in order to obtain approval, the Executive Chamber told JCOPE what information the governor would provide, which was not much," the report stated. "The Executive Chamber also successfully coerced JCOPE into expediting the approval and rushing through the process with very minimal due diligence."

The article goes into greater detail on the findings of the law firm's investigation, which faults the governor's deceptive tactics in getting the deal approved and also the commission's staff for failing their duty to serve the public's interest.

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

9 July 2022: Insider Describes When Cuomo Realized "It's Over"

‘This Is Disgusting’: An Insider’s Account on the Fall of Cuomo

Politico is featuring an excerpt from New York political consultant Lis Smith's upcoming memoir/money grab, Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story, scheduled to be published on 19 July 2022, in which she recounts when Andrew M. Cuomo realized his future as New York's governor was over. We've excerpted a portion of the book excerpt below:

"Governor. Stop. It’s over,” the voice broke through on the conference call line.

Six months earlier, it would have been inconceivable that anyone, let alone a mere political consultant, would cut off the most high-profile, fearsome, and feared state chief executive in the country.

It was Andrew Cuomo who was talking, after all. He was 11 years into his reign at the top of the Empire State, and just one year removed from becoming a national phenomenon for his masterful, made-for-TV COVID briefings, which offered comfort to people amidst the isolation, confusion and trauma of a global pandemic.

But on August 3, 2021 — whether he was willing to accept it or not — he was a dead man walking. That morning, the Attorney General of New York released a bombshell report that concluded that he’d broken state law by sexually harassing women staffers in his administration.

“What’s over?” Cuomo responded.

“This. All of this. This is over. There is no path forward for you,” the adviser responded.

“It’s over because I touched a woman on the back?” Cuomo shot back, his voice rising with a pitched tone of panic.

The adviser, someone not prone to hyperbole or challenging the governor unnecessarily, didn’t mince words.

“It was more than touching a woman on the back. Don’t bullshit yourself or us. If I, a man, were accused of doing any of the things you were, I would be out of a job by now.”

Silence.

“So, you’re telling me I don’t fight back? I don’t do a press conference? Why don’t I just resign then?”

Silence.

“Lis,” Cuomo started in his halting, Queens-inflected cadence, “what do you think?”

He was looking for a sympathetic voice, as he often did on calls. He had a knack for finding people who could agree with even his worst instincts. I paused before I answered....

“Governor, I’d like to disagree,” I told him. “But I just don’t see a way out of this.”

We excluded Smith's insertion of some of her personal background and her comments on the erosion of Andrew M. Cuomo's trustworthiness among members of his inner circle at the ellipses, so please do click through to Politico's substantially longer book excerpt if that's of interest to you. For her part, Smith is no stranger to either working or associating with ethically compromised politicians, most notably another former New York governor who also resigned in disgrace over their alleged misconduct, Eliot Spitzer.

Smith doesn't identify the adviser who delivered the "It's over" message to Cuomo. It's interesting that Cuomo never challenges their assessment that "it was more than touching a woman on the back". Since then, Cuomo has escaped facing criminal charges for his alleged sexual harassment misconduct with multiple women through legal technicalities. The women's allegations have described by multiple prosecutors in jurisdictions across New York state as "credible".

Cuomo still faces multiple civil litigation court cases related to their allegations.

8 July 2022: JCOPE's Final Report - Cuomo Wrongly Used State Resources for Pandemic "Leadership" Book

Report: Cuomo wrongly used state resources to promote book

New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics' final report has dropped. In it, the disbanding commission states Andrew M. Cuomo wrongly used state government resources to produce and promote his pandemic "leadership" book, for which he personally pocketed over $5.1 million.

Here's an excerpt from the Associated Press' coverage of the story:

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo improperly used state resources for a book he received $5.1 million to write, according to a report by a law firm.

New York’s soon-to-be-disbanded ethics commission, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, voted Thursday to make the report public. It had sought the investigation by the law firm to learn more about how the book deal was approved and the role played by the commission itself.

The report says the ethics commission failed to assert itself as a watchdog agency against the governor and should have asked for more information from Cuomo’s office.

Cuomo had already written 70,000 words of what was expected to be an 80,000-word book before he submitted a request seeking approval by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics for the book in 2020.

That meant Cuomo wrote and publicized the book at a time when it interfered with his responsibilities as a governor leading the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said....

The report said the book raised several ethical issues, finding Cuomo “misused the power and authority of his office to create, market and promote for enormous personal profit.”

One interesting angle is that JCOPE acknowledges ethichal misconduct on the part of its own staff, who greenlighted the project without review by the commissioners after being 'coerced' by Cuomo.

The report was prepared by the law firm of Hogan Lovells, who JCOPE contracted with to investigate the commission staff's role. The report [archived version here] was posted in the Special Reports section of JCOPE's web site on 8 July 2022.

8 July 2022: JCOPE to Release Final Report on Cuomo as Ethics Commission Disbands

Ethics panel releases internal Cuomo report in final act

Over much of its history, New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) served to extinguish ethics charges filed against Andrew M. Cuomo and his cronies. So much so that the only place more safe for these political actors from facing consequences for their ethical transgressions was the Albany County District Attorney's office. The ethics "watchdog" created by Cuomo was compromised and ineffective by design.

That state of affairs lasted until August 2021, when Cuomo resigned in disgrace as New York's governor. After that, Cuomo's political appointees who served his interests on the commission were soon shuffled off and their non-beholden-to Cuomo replacements finally began seriously probing Cuomo's more ethically challenged actions from his decade in power.

But because JCOPE had been so severely compromised by Cuomo during its existence, New York legislators acted to replace the toothless watchdog with a new ethics oversight commission for public officials, which takes over that responsibility from JCOPE beginning from 8 July 2022.

As that happens, JCOPE will issue a final report. The excerpt below describes JCOPE's penultimate action from 7 July 2022:

In its final act after 11 bumpy years, New York’s ethics commission voted Thursday to release an internal report that examined its staff’s approval of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s lucrative book deal in 2020.

The 10-to-1 vote by members of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which is being disbanded, is expected to provide insight on the details of a former deputy counsel's decision to authorize the former governor to profit from a book he wrote detailing his handling of the pandemic. The lone dissenting vote was made by William Fisher, one of two Cuomo appointees left on a panel once dominated by loyalists to the ex-governor.

Officials with the ethics commission said they would move quickly to post the report on their website.

JCOPE's commissioners left a lot of open threads related to their long-delayed probes of Andrew M. Cuomo's alleged ethical misconduct. We'll find out soon how many they've addressed in their final report.

6 July 2022: Replacement NY Governor Hochul Slow Walking Promised Probe of Cuomo's COVID Response

Hochul Moves Ahead Slowly on Promised Review of New York's Pandemic Response

It hasn't been our imagination. One reason for the lack of news on Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals has been identified. Replacement NY Governor Kathy Hochul isn't pulling her weight by following up her promise to probe the Cuomo administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic in New York. The following excerpt points to a failure of leadership:

Governor Kathy Hochul has yet to hire independent consultants, or even solicit contract bids, for a COVID-19 after-action review the administration said in April was already "underway.”

After having said in March that she told her team to do a full investigation of the state’s pandemic response, in May Hochul said the state would be working with independent consultants to conduct the investigation. Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, said no contracts or requests for proposals (RFP) – the first step in the public bidding process – had come to the comptroller’s office. "We are not aware of any contracts or RFP’s related to this," he wrote in a June 28 email to Gotham Gazette.

A spokesperson for Hochul confirmed no RFPs had been issued for the review, which according to the governor's public comments would examine "every aspect" of the state's response to the pandemic....

And it's not for lack of calls being made by public health and government watchdog groups:

Public health experts and transparency advocates have been calling on the state to initiate a public investigation that would examine and report findings on the details of the state's handling of the pandemic, including many of the opaque decisions made by Governor Andrew Cuomo and other state officials behind closed doors and with limited public oversight. That could include anything from the March 2020 emergency order to shut down much of public life to policies around nursing home residents to the rollout of vaccines – many aspects of which have been strongly criticized.

At this point, we suspect Hochul has calculated moving forward on a genuinely independent probe would disadvantage members of her political party in November 2022's elections. That's because of the role of many of those officials in enabling Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID-related scandals, from his "friends and family special COVID testing" through the backroom agreements that permitted Cuomo to dump COVID patients out of NY hospital into nursing homes to free up hospital bed space without testing to verify they were no longer contagious.

That latter scandal led to hundreds, if not thousands, of excess deaths from COVID among New York's nursing home residents, the people known to be the most at risk of dying from COVID at the time Cuomo's deadly directive was implemented. All the officials who participated in that scheme have yet to be held accountable for their actions.

1 July 2022: Opinion - Still Few Answers for COVID Deaths in Michigan Nursing Homes

LeDuff: Still few answers for COVID deaths in nursing homes

Detroit-area columnist Charlie LeDuff has changed outlets for his written columns, but is still following Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's version of Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing homes deaths scandals. Here's an excerpt from his 28 June 2022 column in The Detroit News:

When disgraced New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo commanded nursing homes to accept COVID patients in March 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer followed the leader.

When it became obvious that people were dying at alarming rates, Cuomo cut bait and banned the practice altogether.

Not Whitmer. A week after Cuomo's about-face, Whitmer doubled down with executive order 2020-95: “A nursing home must make all reasonable efforts to create a unit dedicated to the care and isolation of COVID 19 affected residents.”

Now that she is seeking re-election, Whitmer denies she ever ordered the housing of the COVID sick in the same building as the healthy. This can generously be called an un-truth.

How many people in Michigan died? We'll probably never know. Just as there is no telling how many seniors died in Michigan's other senior living communities. State health officials decided to ignore Whitmer's order to count them, which was also part of her May 2020 directive.

After all, why would the people who could be charged with criminal neglect or manslaughter from their roles in executing Whitmer's executive order want to compile evidence confirming the obvious negative consequence of their actions?

Do click through to read the rest of LeDuff's column, which names the state officials most culpable for failing Michigan's residents of nursing home and assisted living facilities during the coronavirus pandemic.