18 April 2025: NY Taxpayers to Pay $450K Settlement to Cuomo Sexual Harassment Accuser

NY taxpayers on the hook for $450K as Cuomo sexual harassment accuser settles with the state — just months ahead of mayoral primary

Charlotte Bennett, the second woman to allege former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo sexually harassed her while he was New York's Governor, will receive a cash settlement from the state government because of it. Here's an excerpt from the report.

A former state employee who accused Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment clinched a $450,000 settlement — with taxpayers set to foot the massive bill as the former governor makes a comeback bid for New York City mayor.

Charlotte Bennett, who served as an assistant to Cuomo when he was governor, officially ended a long-running lawsuit Friday against the Empire State.

She is slated to receive $100,000 personally with another $350,000 earmarked for her lawyers and legal costs — all of which will be shelled out by the state.

To date, New York taxpayers have paid nearly $60 million to defend Cuomo for his role in multiple scandals like the sexual harassment allegations that ultimately forced him to resign in disgrace. The article details some of the other legal expenses the state has paid as a legal perk:

Other suits filed over the sexual harassment claims include one from a state trooper who accused Cuomo of touching her inappropriately. That legal battle has cost the state $8.6 million so far, according to Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office.

Another $11.7 million has been spent on state investigations, including into Cuomo’s handling of the COVID pandemic and his notorious $5 million pandemic book deal, as well as to cover the cost of defending him in impeachment proceedings.

Former executive assistant Brittany Commisso, who accused Cuomo of groping her, also has a case against the ex-gov still pending in state court.

On 26 January 2025, federal investigators determined Cuomo retaliated against the women he allegedly sexually harassed during his tenure in office.

This entry was added to the timeline on 22 April 2025.

2 March 2025: Cuomo Claims He Saved NYC from COVID

Andrew Cuomo says he saved NYC during COVID — and can save it as mayor — in first appearance since campaign launch

Andrew M. Cuomo made a rather bold claim as part of his brand new New York City mayoral election campaign. Here's an excerpt from this article covering the story:

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo made his first appearance since throwing his hat into the ring in the Big Apple mayor’s race – telling supporters he saved the city during the pandemic and he can now save it from its current woes....

Cuomo, 67, was introduced by his daughters as he spoke at a carpenter’s union headquarters on Manhattan’s West Side.

“COVID, my friends, was the greatest threat faced in a generation,” the former governor said. “It was life and death, it was as serious as it gets and it was as scary as it gets. And New York, we had it first and we had it worst and we were on our own, and no one knew what to do? But what did we do? We came together, we stood tall, we stood strong and we faced the challenge head on.

“Everyone did their part,” he said. “And we kept this place, we kept this place running and we saved lives and we led the nation. So can we handle this challenge? You’re damned right we can.”

Cuomo failed to mention his deadly 25 March 2020 directive and the role it had in contributing to excess COVID deaths at New York's nursing homes. The directive forced nursing homes to admit patients known to be infected with the highly contagious coronavirus, which was especially dangerous and often fatal to elderly, sick individuals like those who rely upon nursing homes.

Exit question: What is the position of the carpenter's union on Cuomo's deadly directive?

2 March 2025: Families of Cuomo's Nursing Home Victims Opposing Cuomo's NYC Mayoral Run

Family of Cuomo’s COVID nursing home victims blast ‘disqualified’ gov’s quest for more power

Andrew M. Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace from New York's governor's mansion rather than face impeachment in New York's state legislature, announced on 1 March 2025 that he would run for election to become New York City's next mayor.

Cuomo's announcement triggered an immediate negative reaction among the surviving families of victims of Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive, which forced nursing homes to accept patients known to have COVID infections during the worst phase of 2020's coronavirus pandemic.

Family members of COVID-19 nursing home victims vowed to fight former Gov. Cuomo’s mayoral candidacy “every step of the way” — saying his handling of the pandemic “disqualified” him from mounting a political comeback.

“When you fail the most vulnerable who need the most help and are counting on the leadership to be top notch, he already disqualified himself from this race,” Vivian Rivera-Zayas, whose mother, Ana, died after contracting COVID-19 at a Long Island nursing home, told The Post.

“We’re going to continue to fight him every step of the way, hoping that he will not be elected our mayor.”

The article captures the reaction of another prominent anti-Cuomo advocate whose family was directly impacted by Cuomo's deadly policy decision:

Peter Arbeeny, who believes his father, Norman, contracted the virus at a Brooklyn nursing home in March 2020 and died the following month, ripped Cuomo’s callous attitude.

“His most famous term was, ‘Who cares where they died?'” said Arbeeny, 58, referring to Cuomo’s gripe at a 2021 press conference after a state attorney general’s report found he downplayed the number of nursing home residents killed by the bug. Cuomo repeated the question during a House committee hearing last year.

At this point, we'll interject to note that Cuomo and senior members of his administration clearly cared where they died, otherwise they would not have deliberately omitted the deaths of nursing home residents who were infected in their nursing homes but were transferred to other medical facilities where they subsequently died from the state's official count of COVID nursing home fatalities, which is a point that Cuomo made during testimony under oath before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee in September 2024. The cover-up of the full extent of COVID nursing home deaths is one of the major parts of Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals.

The Arbeeny family's wrongful death lawsuit against the state of New York was dismissed on 30 September 2024. After commenting about several other civil court lawsuits that were dismissed, Cuomo's spokesperson Richard Azzopardi gave comments about the Arbeeny family's case that were reported in this article:

Azzopardi also noted that Arbeeny filed a lawsuit against the state that was dismissed, but “the facts that came out of that clearly show” his father’s nursing home did not admit any COVID-positive patients until three weeks after he had been discharged.

Azzpardi's comment represents a clear admission that patients known to be infected with COVID were deliberately placed in the nursing home where the Arbeeny's father had lived, where their infections could have been spread and infected other nursing home residents. Under Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive, the nursing home would be blocked from refusing to admit infected patients with the highly infectious condition that was known to be especially fatal to the sick and elderly.

This article was published on 1 March 2025, we're catching up to it today.

1 March 2025: Andrew Cuomo Announces Run for New York City Mayor

Andrew Cuomo announces run for New York City mayor

After months with little to no new developments in his nursing home deaths scandals and few in Cuomo's sexual harassment scandals that led him to resign in disgrace as New York's state governor, Andrew M. Cuomo has announced he will run for mayor of New York City.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid numerous sexual harassment allegations in 2021, is running for New York City mayor.

The former governor made the announcement Saturday in a video on X, ending weeks of speculation.

The article mostly focuses on the sexual harassment scandals, but does mention Cuomo's nursing home deaths scandals:

In addition to the harassment scandal, Cuomo also came under scrutiny for allegations his administration concealed damaging information about nursing home deaths during the pandemic.

Cuomo was grilled on allegedly underreporting COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes during a GOP-led House committee hearing in September 2024. Cuomo largely stood by his decision-making during the pandemic -- including a March 2020 directive to readmit COVID-19 patients back into nursing homes -- and blamed the outsized death toll on what he described as then-President Donald Trump's lack of leadership.

"Every night, we got a census from the nursing homes, total nursing home deaths, total hospital deaths," Cuomo said during the combative hearing. "The numbers were less than certain, and they were highly problematic, because you were calling up a nursing home and basically asking them to do a forensic audit in the middle of a pandemic."

Cuomo also testified that he never directed his staff to report the number of nursing home-related fatalities as lower than they actually were.

"No, we said these are the numbers without the out-of-facility death numbers, which we will add when they're accurate," Cuomo said in the hearing.

The earliest reference we find in the timeline to Cuomo's claim the number of reported nursing home deaths omitted out-of-facility deaths because they were not accurate is on 26 April 2021, when Cuomo blamed "politics" for his and his administration's stonewalling of reporting complete nursing home death data.

Cuomo and his administration had a strong incentive to underreport COVID nursing home deathsbecause of his deadly 25 March 2020 directive. Cuomo's claims his administration only reported accurate deaths failed to pass contemporary fact checks.

26 January 2025: Federal Prosecutors Find Cuomo Sexually Harassed 13 Women, Engaged in Retaliation

Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed at least 13 female employees, retaliated against ex-staff: Feds

The state of New York has entered a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice after federal investigators determined the resigned-in-disgrace former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo sexually harassed at least 13 women while governor and engaged in retaliation against several.

Federal prosecutors are backing the New York attorney general’s findings that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed several women and created a hostile work environment in the governor’s office.

In a settlement agreement between the feds and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced Friday, the US Attorney’s Office slammed Cuomo for sexually harassing and later retaliating against former employees, even though the former governor continues to deny the allegations.

“Former Governor Cuomo subjected at least thirteen female employees of New York State, including Executive Chamber employees, to a sexually hostile work environment. Governor Cuomo repeatedly subjected these female employees to unwelcome, non-consensual sexual contact; ogling; unwelcome sexual comments; gender-based nicknames; comments on their physical appearances; and/or preferential treatment based on their physical appearances,” the report reads.

The settlement agreement was the result of federal prosecutors’ own investigation into the former governor, which was carried out separately from probes initiated by Attorney General Letitia James and the state Assembly Judiciary Committee.

The findings reported in the settlement will likely provide a basis for the state government to settle several lawsuits filed by Cuomo's alleged victims, who now have much stronger cases against Cuomo for his conduct in office.

This entry was added to the timeline on 22 April 2025.

19 December 2024: Cuomo Sues Woman Who Accused Him of Sexual Harassment for Defamation

Andrew Cuomo sues woman who accused him of sexual harassment for defamation

Andrew M. Cuomo and his New York state taxpayer-funded legal team filed a defamation suit against Charlotte Bennett, just nine days after Bennett withdrew her federal lawsuit against Cuomo.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit Thursday against a former aide who alleged he sexually harassed her in 2020. His legal filing came just days after she withdrew her own lawsuit against him.

In the filing, Cuomo's lawyers claimed Charlotte Bennett, a former executive assistant in his office, lied about him making sexual advances toward her.

"Governor Cuomo did not make any sexual advances toward Bennett and did not sexually harass her," his lawyers wrote in a notice filed in New York state court on Thursday.

Bennett was the second woman to accuse the then-governor of sexual harassment, which she said included telling her he was "lonely" and asking her if she would be open to sex with an older man. She described Cuomo as "a textbook abuser" who made her "deeply uncomfortable."

After Bennett went public with her allegations in March 2021, Cuomo held a press conference where he said he felt "embarrassed" and that he "never knew at the time I was making anyone feel uncomfortable."...

Bennett's decision to drop her case before testifying under oath in depositions was cited by Cuomo's legal team as a motivation for their going forward with their defamation claim:

In their filing today, Cuomo's attorneys note that their discovery requests fell "under the rules that govern all federal lawsuits. They alleged Bennett dropped her suit to avoid being deposed and to "shield the overwhelming evidence of her false claims from ever becoming public."

Cuomo's notice said "Bennett's claims were … exposed as a sham through the discovery process."

Cuomo's attorneys appear to be using especially aggressive tactics against Bennett, perhaps hoping to affect the outcome of other sexual harassment court cases pending against Cuomo. Cuomo's codefendants in other lawsuits have used similar legal tactics.

This entry was added to the timeline on 1 March 2025.

10 December 2024: Second Woman Accusing Cuomo of Sexual Harassment Drops Her Federal Lawsuit

Andrew Cuomo sex harass accuser drops lawsuit before she’s set for deposition but takes vicious parting shot: ‘Better off dead’

Charlotte Bennett, the second woman to come forward to accuse Andrew M. Cuomo of sexual harassment, dropped her federal case. The following excerpt summarizes the basic story:

A former aide accusing ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment has decided to drop her federal lawsuit, just days before she was due to give a marathon deposition.

Charlotte Bennett announced that she had voluntarily withdrawn her lawsuit against Cuomo late Monday and claimed the former executive had used “unlimited” taxpayer funds meant for his defense to attack her to the point that she felt she’d be “better off dead than endure more of his litigation abuse.”

“Andrew Cuomo is going to claim this as some kind of victory, which should be viewed, of course, as pathetic,” said Erica Vladimer, co founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group. “Instead, New Yorkers will see him for what he is: an abusive, empty pit of a man who wasted $25 million of taxpayer money to cover up his own mistakes.”

Just days ago, The Post reported that Cuomo had sought a gag order to prevent Bennett from publicly discussing the $28 million in taxpayer funds paid out to defend him and others related to his cases, money to which the former governor is legally entitled.

Cuomo's lawyers delivered their opinion on Bennett's decision to drop her case:

“Ms. Bennett’s decision to drop her baseless lawsuit should be viewed as a complete capitulation and a desperate attempt to avoid being confronted with the mountains of exculpatory discovery — including contemporaneous texts and videos that the AG’s office never obtained — that completely refute her claims against Governor Cuomo,” said Cuomo lawyers Rita Glavin and Theresa Trzaskoma in a statement.

In dropping her case, Bennett avoided testifying under oath, which raises questions about her previous statements. Similar questions arose when Cuomo chose to resign in disgrace as New York's state governor rather than face potential impeachment by New York's state legislature related to the allegations of sexual harassment advanced against him by at least ten other women in addition to Bennett.

The Albany Times-Union reports Bennett will continue her lawsuit against the State of New York.

This entry was added to the timeline on 1 March 2025.

30 October 2024: House Panel to Criminally Refer Andrew M. Cuomo to DOJ for COVID Nursing Home Deaths Scandals

House panel to criminally refer Andrew Cuomo to DOJ for alleged ‘false statements' over COVID nursing home response

The role of Andrew M. Cuomo in allegedly directing a coverup of the outcome of the infamous deadly 25 March 2020 directive he issued plays a significant part in this story.

A U.S. House panel on the COVID-19 pandemic is sending a criminal referral of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to the Department of Justice, alleging he made "criminally false statements" during closed-door testimony in June 2024.

The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland accusing the former governor of providing false statements to the panel when he testified on June 11.

In the Republican-led committee's referral, it says Cuomo "knowingly and willfully made materially false statements" to the panel during its investigation into the New York's COVID-19 response. The statements in question stem from exchanges about a New York State Department of Health report on nursing home infections and deaths that was released on July 6, 2020.

The criminal referral alleges Cuomo denied being involved in the drafting or reviewing of the report during his June 2024 testimony, but that documents counter his claims. Cuomo also denied having discussions about the July 6 report being peer reviewed, according to the panel, which said documents show otherwise. The committee said it asked Cuomo if he knew people outside of the health department who were involved in drafting or editing the review and the former governor responded "no," which the panel said it has proof he was not truthful.

According to the panel, documents show handwritten notes on a draft copy of the July 6 report that a former executive assistant to Cuomo testified appeared to be his handwriting. The panel also offered what it said is a June 23, 2020 email from the assistant to staff of the governor's office that said "Governor's edits are attached for your review."

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 November 2024.

With the election outcome, its likely any action by the DOJ to pursue criminal charges against Andrew M. Cuomo for his role in New York state's COVID nursing home deaths scandals will be pursued by the incoming Trump administration in 2025. That will be disappointing for Cuomo, because going by its actions since January 2021, the DOJ under Biden administration Attorney General Merrick Garland would almost certainly sweep the matter under the rug.

30 September 2024: Judges Toss Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Cuomo

Judges tosses wrongful death suit against Cuomo over order requiring COVID patients into nursing homes

A New York state district judge dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit against Andrew M. Cuomo related to his deadly 25 March 2020 directive. Here's the introduction to the report:

A wrongful death lawsuit against Andrew Cuomo over a state directive that forced nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients was tossed by a judge Monday – with the ex-governor’s camp claiming “justice has prevailed.”

Eastern District of New York Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted a motion to dismiss the suit that was brought against Cuomo and other top aides in 2022 by a man whose father contracted the deadly disease in a Brooklyn nursing home and died.

Daniel Arbeeny, of Brooklyn, argued in the suit that his father’s death was caused by a 2020 state health department order that required nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients.

Loved ones of others who died in nursing homes during the pandemic also joined the lawsuit, alleging the same thing.

The judge gave no justification for their decision. The article also indicates no decision has been made for whether the case will be dismissed with prejudice, which would prevent the plaintiffs from refiling their case.

In any case, Daniel Arbeeny indicated he and the plaintiffs would appeal the judge's decision, which means more very slow moving legal actions lie ahead.

This entry was added to the timeline on 13 October 2024.

29 September 2024: SNL Jabs at Cuomo Political Ambitions

Saturday Night Live takes jab at Cuomo's Political Ambitions

Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" referenced Andrew M. Cuomo's nursing home deaths scandals in its "Weekend Update" segment. Here's the relevant clip:

This clip may be an early sign of what will become a recurring pattern whenever Cuomo makes moves toward pursuing elected positions. For their part, SNL's writers haven't said much about Cuomo's nursing home deaths scandals since 2021.

Here's a link to the full segment posted on YouTube. The clip we featured runs from the 1:48 to the 2:21 minute mark of the segment.

This entry was added to the timeline on 13 October 2024.

10 September 2024: Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Grilled on COVID-19 Nursing Home Policies

Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo grilled on COVID-19 nursing home policies

Andrew M. Cuomo gave public testimony under oath before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee. Here's the introduction to this report:

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was grilled during his public testimony before Congress on Tuesday, defending his administration's nursing home policies during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hearing, before the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, saw a defensive Cuomo who largely stood by his decision-making during the pandemic -- including a March 2020 directive to readmit COVID-19 patients back into nursing homes -- and blamed the outsized death toll on what he described as former president Donald Trump's lack of leadership.

Cuomo previously testified before the subcommittee during a closed-door hearing in June. Transcripts from that interview, as well as with high-ranking officials during Cuomo's administration, were released Tuesday morning ahead of the public hearing.

While Cuomo attempted to deflect blame to former President Donald Trump in his testimony, the release of transcripts of testimony under oath to the subcommittee provided by his former aides paint a different picture of the governor and his top political staff in both signing off on the deadly 25 March 2020 directive and covering up the full extent of nursing home deaths that resulted.

9 September 2024: Aides: Cuomo 'Edited' Report Undercounting Nursing Home Deaths, 'Absolutely' Signed Off Deadly Directive

Cuomo aides knew his nursing home mandate would be ‘great debacle,’ helped gov ‘edit’ report that deflated deaths, House COVID panel finds

This report covers a number of allegations raised by several of former New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's former staff members regarding actions Cuomo and other members of his staff took to conceal the disastrous results of Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive in official state reports. Here's a summary of the two biggest blockbusters from the introduction to this article:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo allegedly himself “edited” a state report that deflated New York’s COVID-19 death toll in nursing homes — which his top aides pressured health officials into releasing, despite knowing the issue would turn into a “great debacle,” according to the stunning results of an investigation by a US House committee.

Cuomo’s office “absolutely” signed off on the disastrous directive early in the pandemic forcing coronavirus patients back into nursing homes — leading to as many as 9,000 excess COVID deaths — the final congressional report and witness testimonies exclusively obtained by The Post show.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic conducted the probe and majority staff released the findings ahead of a public hearing with the 66-year-old ex-governor on Tuesday.

Cuomo had disputed the allegation he had signed off on the deadly 25 March 2020 directive while testifying under oath behind closed doors to the U.S. House subcommittee probing the matter in June 2024. That testimony was contradicted by another state official's testimony:

Cuomo and DeRosa told the House COVID subcommittee the order had been drafted by a “midlevel” New York Department of Health staff member based on guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The order apparently “surprised” Cuomo and DeRosa when both were asked about it at an April 20, 2020, press conference. It was taken down from the state health department website nine days later but remained operable for another month.

“I do not recall reviewing,” Cuomo testified. “I don’t recall seeing it.”

But Bradley Hutton, former deputy health commissioner, told the House committee that the governor’s office had “absolutely” signed off on the order.

Another state official, Cuomo's Director of Operations Jim Malatras, testified to the House subcommittee about the coverup of the full extent of nursing home deaths that resulted from the implementation of Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive.

According to Cuomo’s then-director of operations, Dr. Jim Malatras, who served as a member of the governor’s COVID task force, top aide Melissa DeRosa “laid out the points that she wanted to have touched upon in the report.”

“The report that I was editing had the total number of fatalities in all the charts until Ms. DeRosa intervened,” Malatras testified to the subcommittee.

“She was constantly editing it, Mr. Cuomo was editing it,” Malatras said in his testimony.

“It was largely around language,” he added, saying the governor’s aides would push to “refashion those sentences to be more less causal, less definitive, and work back in some of the language that DOH had originally.”

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 September 2024.

3 September 2024: Cuomo to Give Public Testimony on COVID Nursing Home Deaths Scandals to Congress

Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo to testify before House COVID panel

On 11 June 2024, former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo testified under oath to a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives about his COVID nursing home deaths scandals. That testimony took place behind closed doors, where only a portion of his transcribed testimony has been made public.

On 10 September 2024, Cuomo will go back before the House subcommittee to give public testimony under oath. Here's how that news was reported by the New York Post:

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is set to testify next week before a House committee investigating his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic — including an infamous mandate that forced infected patients into nursing homes.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic announced Tuesday that it was preparing to question the ex-New York governor on Sept. 10 about the “unscientific guidance” that led to the deaths of thousands of senior citizens.

The article goes on to recap much of the Post's previous coverage of the ongoing story, scandals, and the Cuomo administration's attempted cover-up of the excess deaths that resulted from his deadly 25 March 2020 directive.

25 July 2024: NY State Comptroller Calls for Independent Commission to Probe Cuomo COVID Policies after Hochul Commission Whitewash

DiNapoli Op-Ed in Times Union: NY Needs an Independent Commission to Review State's COVID Response

If you needed evidence the Hochul Commission report on the leadership performance of state officials from former governor Andrew M. Cuomo on down was a whitewash, you got it today with an op-ed and official statement by NY State Comptroller Thomas Napoli.

The following excerpt gets straight to the deficiencies of the audit's findings:

An independent report by the Olson Group, prepared under contract with New York state, was expected to be an objective assessment of the state’s response to the crisis. Sorry to say, the Olson report failed to provide the rigorous, fact-based examination New York deserved, nor does it provide a roadmap for future improvement.

For the report to have been credible, it was imperative for its analysis to be accurate and complete. The Olson report often relied on flawed or unvalidated data, and at times data was interpreted incorrectly, resulting in erroneous conclusions.

One of the most glaring examples relates to nursing home deaths. The report cites figures based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, stating, “New York’s poor performance, with a rate of 70.9 deaths per 1,000 nursing home residents, ranked it in the bottom third of all states.” The reality is far more grim. It is well known the CMS data undercounted the COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, as facilities’ reporting of COVID deaths was optional up to the week ending May 24, 2020 – a period that accounted for more than 75% of such deaths in New York. As a result, CMS reported our state had 5,974 nursing home deaths as of the last week of 2020. However, the state Department of Health’s data, which the Olson Group should have had access to, showed that the actual number of deaths for that time frame was closer to 11,350. Based on this more accurate data, New York’s nursing home death rate was nearly double at 135 per 1,000 residents, ranking us among the very worst states.

The report’s reliance on data known to be incomplete, as well as the misinterpretation and misreporting of data, is a serious shortcoming. Certain sources often lacked context, and cited information not included or contradicted by other sources. The Olson Group itself acknowledged the limited value of testimonial evidence, yet it leans on personal opinions from anonymous sources of unknown authority (such as a “Town Hall participant”). Rather than rigorous benchmarking or metrics, or evaluation against best practices, the report relies on testimonial evidence – even when substantive or authoritative documentation was available. The result, in many cases, is unsupported conclusions.

To overcome the whitewashed deficiencies of the Hochul Commission's report, DiNapoli proposes a more serious review of the actions taken by state officials during the coronavirus pandemic:

It's time for full consideration of proposed state legislation to establish an independent commission, with subpoena power, to provide the comprehensive accounting New Yorkers deserve.

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 August 2024.

21 June 2024: Hochul’s Pandemic Study Is a $4.3 Million Flop

Hochul’s Pandemic Study Is a $4.3 Million Flop

The report of a commission established by replacement NY governor Kathy Hochul to probe the effectiveness of policies implemented by former governor Andrew M. Cuomo and state officials who served under him is being slammed as a whitewash by the Empire Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy think tank in New York.

One of those policies is Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive, which forced nursing homes to admit patients known to have COVID infections into their facilities, where the highly contagious disease could spread like "fire through dry grass" among the portion of the state's population most vulnerable to a fatal outcome from exposure to it.

The Empire Center's Bill Hammond identifies multiple deficiencies in the report compiled by the Olson Group, which had been hired by Hochul to perform the audit. Here's an overview from the introduction of his analysis:

The newly released study of New York’s coronavirus pandemic response falls far short of what Governor Hochul promised – and the state urgently needs – in the aftermath of its worst natural disaster in modern history.

Hochul had commissioned a $4.3 million after-action review of the crisis, saying she wanted it to cover “the good, the bad and the ugly” and bolster the state’s preparedness for future outbreaks.

Yet the 262-page report from the Olson Group, a Virginia-based consulting firm, turns out to be thinly researched, poorly argued, ill-informed, sloppily presented and marred by obvious errors.

Although many of its findings ring true, it glosses over or ignores some of the state’s most questionable actions – such as ordering thousands of Covid-positive patients into nursing homes.

It looks especially weak in comparison to a similar review prepared for the state of New Jersey, which 648 pages longer – and far more detailed, authoritative and clearly written.

Hochul should declare the Olson Group’s work unacceptable, demand a refund and launch a real after-action review – by joining with Legislature to establish an independent pandemic response commission.

In this next excerpt, Hammond focuses on problems the Hochul Commission had in addressing Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive:

Another weak point is the report’s analysis of the much-debated March 25, 2020, order mandating nursing homes to admit Covid-positive patients being discharged from hospitals.

The report gives a garbled, incomplete account of the events surrounding the order and comes to a generally supportive conclusion:

The State is required by virtue of the applicable federal standards to have planning and processes in place to execute medical surge strategies to preserve the capacity to provide life-saving clinical care. It is also obligated to ensure that people are not discriminated against due to their health conditions. The policy to admit or return COVID-19 patients to nursing homes following hospital admission was an attempt to accomplish both standard public health disaster practices.

That analysis ignores key considerations:

• The policy was based on exaggerated projections of hospital crowding that never came to pass.
• Alternative sites were available, such as the temporary hospital at the Javits Convention Center, but they went largely unused.
• Nursing homes received no warning before the March 25 mandate was issued.
• Officials failed to emphasize the need for precautions in handling the admissions – or that facilities had the option of turning them down.
• The policy applied statewide even though the crisis was concentrated in New York City.
• The policy remained in place until early May even though hospital demand peaked in mid-April.

These are the type of details that a proper after-action review should itemize – not to shame past officials for mistakes, but to help future officials avoid repeating them.

It's quite possible Hochul's commission produced the report New York's state officials and she wanted them to produce. Unfortunately, it's not the report they really needed them to produce, which at $4.3 million, represents a costly flop that still needs to be cleaned up.

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 August 2024.

13 July 2024: Federal Judge Dismisses Retaliation Claim Against Cuomo by Alleged Sexual Harassment Victim

Federal judge dismisses retaliation claims against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

The legal case of State Trooper #1 against former NY Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and his senior aides Melissa DeRosa and Rich Azzopardi had a setback in that one of the female trooper's claims that Cuomo retaliated against her were dismissed by a federal judge hearing the case.

However, as you'll see in the excerpt, the basis of that dismissal relies on a technicality connected to when she served on his protective detail. There no dispute over whether the retaliatory action happened, but rather, whether she was serving on his protective detail when the action taken against her occurred:

A federal judge has dismissed a New York State Trooper's claim of retaliation against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

In the ruling, the judge says the supposed action Cuomo took against the trooper happened after her employment contract had already ended.

The trooper sued the former governor and his top aides in 2022 after saying Cuomo had inappropriate conversations and physical contact with her when she was part of his security detail.

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 August 2024.

14 June 2024: Hochul Commission Reviewing Cuomo Pandemic Policies Faults Cuomo for Leadership Failures, but Not COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Cuomo Faulted for Pandemic Leadership but Not for Nursing Home Deaths

The New York Times reports on the findings of an audit commissioned by replacement NY State Governor Kathy Hochul on the policies her disgraced predecessor Andrew M. Cuomo implemented during 2020's coronavirus pandemic in New York.

Here's an excerpt from the story:

A long-awaited review of New York State’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic under former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declined to fault him for the thousands of people who died of Covid-19 at nursing homes.

The report said the nursing home deaths in New York were largely consistent with national outcomes, but it nonetheless criticized Mr. Cuomo’s decision to centralize the state’s pandemic response in his office as “a significant and unnecessary mistake.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul commissioned the review, which was conducted by the Olson Group, a consulting firm, after she succeeded Mr. Cuomo in 2021. The purpose was to scrutinize New York’s handling of a crisis that shuttered businesses, strained social services and relegated millions of children to remote learning.

Remarkably, the New York Times's story describes the commission's report with words that suggest it was a whitewash for state officials and their decisions during the pandemic:

Investigators describe the nursing home issue as “a source of emotional distress to families as well as an area where the state came up well short in terms of both perception and performance, although overall outcomes were not substantially inconsistent with overall performance in such facilities nationwide.”

But despite blaming Mr. Cuomo’s micromanaging of the pandemic response, the report does not dig deeper on who was responsible for the failures.

Instead, a note in the report’s conclusion says state officials “made it clear” that the report should focus on lessons for the future, rather than mistakes of the past.

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 August 2024. We're playing catchup for this ongoing story after wrapping up a couple of other projects....

12 June 2024: Cuomo Congressional Testimony on COVID Nursing Home Deaths: "Who Cares?"

Andrew Cuomo repeats infamous ‘who cares?’ on nursing home COVID deaths in congressional interview

While we're waiting for an official transcript of Andrew M. Cuomo's testimony before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, stories like this try to fill the gap, but are at risk of being unreliable. We're presenting this story to give a sense of what information made its way into the media. Here's the introduction:

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo repeated his infamous “who cares?” line during a grilling by a House committee Tuesday about his administration’s decision to send infected COVID-19 patients into nursing homes — resulting in thousands of deaths during the pandemic, according to a readout of his testimony released Wednesday by Republicans.

Republican majority staff from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic said Cuomo “deflected responsibility” throughout the seven-hour interview about his administration’s devastating March 25, 2020, “must admit” order that shuttled sick patients into senior care facilities statewide.

A transcript of the testimony has yet to be released, and reps for Cuomo who were present for the interview have disputed some of the readout’s claims.

Here's the portion of the "readout" that contains the quote from this story's headline:

“The state order says, ‘You shall take back individuals and you cannot deny them solely on the basis of COVID,’ which left [nursing homes] no option but to accept individuals that we knew would cause risk to the other patients,” he explained.

Molinaro also accused Cuomo’s administration of having “cooked the books” on the nursing home death count, which was later confirmed by two state investigations, once they “knew that the order was causing great loss”

“When pressed to explain the discrepancy between the reported death count and the true mortality rate, Mr. Cuomo was shockingly callous — testifying ‘6,500 versus 9,000…who cares, what difference did it make?'” the readout of the interview on Capitol Hill shows.

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 August 2024.

11 June 2024: Cuomo Testifies He Was Unaware of Nursing Home Order His Office Edited

Cuomo testifies he was unaware of nursing home order his office edited

The revelation that former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo sought to blame an unknown state government or political staffer for drafting the deadly 25 March 2020 directive he and former New York Public Health Commissioner Howard Zucker approved, implemented, and enforced with tragic consequences is one that deserves much more attention. In the aftermath of Cuomo's 11 June 2024 testimony before a select subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, we sought out any additional reporting that might provide more information about his testimony under oath.

Here is the first of two excerpts from the Albany Times-Union's coverage, which summarizes Cuomo's allegation:

Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Tuesday told a congressional subcommittee that he was unaware of a controversial directive that had been issued by the state Department of Health in March 2020 directing nursing homes to accept residents even if they had tested positive for COVID-19.

Cuomo’s statement about his lack of knowledge of the directive was made to members of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which has been probing New York’s handling of the health crisis.

The former governor’s assertion — that he was unaware of a directive that had been issued to ease pressure on New York hospitals as they became overwhelmed with patients — echoes public statements he made a month later, in April 2020, when he claimed during a news conference that he was not familiar with the advisory.

Sources familiar with a now-closed FBI investigation of the Cuomo administration’s decision to issue that directive said that a draft was edited for more than two days by the Health Department and members of the governor’s office before it was issued on March 25, 2020. Cuomo’s testimony that he was unaware of the directive — even nearly four weeks later — means that he was not briefed on or otherwise part of the discussions of one of the most consequential decisions that was made at the time to deal with hospitals potentially running out of bed space.

There has been a running consideration of whether Cuomo's directive and the actions to implement it constitutes either criminally negligent homicide or manslaughter.

That's the background. In the second excerpt, a former state government official has been identified as the person who potentially drafted Cuomo's ill-fated directive, though they firmly deny it and Cuomo's spokesperson later sought to muddy the waters as to who was responsble for drafting the deadly directive:

In addition, former Health Department officials interviewed in that federal investigation, which was headed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, told the FBI that Cuomo was frequently on their calls with his coronavirus task force, but would usually only listen without speaking. At least one of those former officials told the FBI that Larry Schwartz, a former secretary to the governor who was brought back to help with the public health response, had a hand in editing drafts of the nursing home advisory.

Schwartz on Tuesday said the allegation that he edited or reviewed a draft of the nursing home directive “is false.”

“I don’t know who said that, or who told the FBI that; that is factually an inaccurate statement. I had nothing to do with that. Zero,” Schwartz said. “I had zero to do with anything involving nursing home policies.”

After this story was published online, Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, said there was a distinction between staff of the governor’s office and members of the coronavirus task force, who were volunteers.

The governor had announced Schwartz’s return to service on March 23, 2020 — the same day early drafts of the advisory began being exchanged between the governor’s office and the Health Department. The announcement of Schwartz’s appointment to the task force said he would be tasked with “helping the state acquire health care equipment and supplies and increasing New York’s hospital surge capacity.”

Cuomo's reported claims indicate he is continuing to follow a strategy of attempting to pass the buck to avoid legal and criminal consequences in blaming an unknown, unidentified staffer or volunteer for his actions as governor. Even if true, we think that may further implicate Cuomo in those consequences. If the policy had been produced as he describes, Cuomo could easily have acknowledged the policy was flawed and changed course to correct it within a matter of days, with little to no political penalty.

But that's not what happened, is it? Even though Cuomo fully possessed the ability to reverse course at any times his deadly directive remained in effect, he refused to alter it for weeks. As a capable lawyer might argue, that Cuomo did not represents a true failure of leadership.

This entry was added to the timeline on 13 June 2024.

11 June 2024: Cuomo Testimony Short of Remorse for Actions

Cuomo grilled by House panel over NY’s COVID nursing-home deaths: ‘Don’t see a lot of remorse’

This report covers Andrew M. Cuomo's testimony under oath behind closed doors to a U.S. Congressional select subcommittee investigating the consequences of Cuomo's policy decisions while serving as New York's state governor during 2020's coronavirus pandemic, including his deadly 25 March 2020 directive. According to this report, the testimony was primarily self-serving:

A defiant former Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday blamed everyone but himself for New York’s deadly COVID nursing-home debacle while being grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, GOP pols said.

“I don’t see a lot of remorse. He is deflecting,” said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), who is one of several doctors serving on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic as it investigates the former governor’s conduct at the closed-door hearing.

Cuomo allegedly refused to shake the hand of House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York at one point but was otherwise very cordial, sources and lawmakers said — and when asked by The Post how he was feeling heading into the session, replied, “Cool dude, loose mood, always.”

Republican lawmakers exiting the questioning said Cuomo was still trying to frame the congressional inquiry as political and did not provide any noteworthy new context to the panel, instead keeping to what he wrote in his related book, a gushing story of his administration’s response to the horrific crisis.

There was however a confirmation about the nature of Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive that undermines claims Cuomo had previously made:

In his opening statement, Cuomo had denied accusations of mishandling the COVID response and pointed to federal guidance as having hampered his administration’s response.

But under sharp questioning from Stefanik on Tuesday, Cuomo acknowledged that the order sending infected older people into the nursing homes was a state directive and not a federal mandate from the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a source familiar with the exchange told The Post.

There's more, as Cuomo attempted to assign some of the blame for his deadly 25 March 2020 directive to a lower level bureaucrat in the state government, but also continued to claim it followed directions from the federal government:

Cuomo placed partial blame on a professional staff member at the New York Department of Health for drafting it — but by the end of the marathon session told reporters it was the wrong decision.

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have told my Department of health, ‘Don’t listen to the federal government; they don’t know what they’re talking about.’ Because what the facts now show is you know what happened in nursing homes.”

Cuomo's claim was refuted by Representative Susan Molinaro, who continued to describe a motive for Cuomo's subsequent actions:

“They [Cuomo and his then-staff] want to assert that that order is exactly the same as the federal CMS, which it is not,” Molinaro told reporters while the hearing was on a break. “The state order says, ‘You shall take back individuals and you cannot deny them solely on the basis of COVID,’ which left them no option but to accept individuals that we knew would cause risk to the other patients.

“Andrew Cuomo was attempting to shift blame for what was a clear directive,” Molinaro said. “When they identified and knew that the order was causing great loss, they subsequently cooked the books to suggest that the numbers of those who died in nursing homes were much less than we knew.”

There's quite a lot more in the article, much of which repeats Cuomo's claims involving other aspects of how he and his administration implemented its COVID policies that contributed to excess COVID deaths during the 2020 pandemic.