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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stefanik said,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

28 September 2022: The Governor Who Quit Attempts a Comeback

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next excerpt better describes Bennett's legal complaint:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[...]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We hope that's exactly what they do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13 August 2022: Andrew M. Cuomo's Strange Anniversary of His Resignation in Disgrace

Churchill: On a special day, a gift from Andrew Cuomo

Albany Times-Union columnist Chris Churchill wrote this amusing column to mark the one-year anniversary of Andrew M. Cuomo's resignation. Here are the first three paragraphs:

Did you remember to celebrate the anniversary of Andrew Cuomo's resignation?

There was no need for a big bash. Something small would have done the trick — an extra scoop of ice cream after dinner, perhaps, or a few quiet minutes enjoying the serenity that comes with knowing that a certain someone is no longer governor. Don't we all deserve a reward after his 11-year reign?

Cuomo, as it turns out, marked the day by filing a lawsuit demanding that taxpayers fund his defense against sexual harassment allegations. That, apparently, is his idea of an anniversary gift. Surprise!

Here are the last four paragraphs:

It seems odd that Cuomo would choose the precise anniversary of those words to file the suit against James — who, as it happened, spent the day deposing Donald Trump. Cuomo learned about her rejection of his request months ago, after all, but waited until the special day to make his case. Why?

Could he think the timing would somehow amplify the claim that he was wronged? Could he really have believed that New Yorkers, with a year now gone, would look fondly upon a wealthy man's demand for their money?

Or is he just painfully bad at anniversaries, like the misguided husband who presents his poor spouse with a romantic vacuum cleaner? Happy twentieth, sweetheart! Gee, thanks.

A word of advice, Mr. Former Governor: Next year, send flowers.

Just the parts we've excerpted from Churchill's column can stand alone as its own entire short piece. But writers write, and in between the excerpts we featured are 13 more paragraphs and many more good points. None of which touch on Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals, but which shines a bright light on his character all the same.

For us, that helps answer the question of what kind of person would choose to develop and implement what they knew would be a deadly directivethat would contribute to the excess deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of nursing home residents during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

Our best insight into Cuomo's character comes from a more general observation: when you discover a genuinely creative person, you'll usually find they're creative in more than one way. As an example, think of all the artists out there who express themselves through more than one, and often very different, kinds of mediums. You may know them best for one particular field of their work, but the full body of their creative work extends into other, more diverse endeavors.

The same is often true of the worst people. You'll usually find they're genuinely bad or corrupt in more than one way. It's why we've continued covering Cuomo's ongoing legal issues associated with his alleged sexual harassment of multiple women. It would be strange to find someone who chose to adopt such a perverse policy was only off kilter in that one way.

11 August 2022: Cuomo Sues to Compel New Yorkers to Pay His Legal Bills in Trooper's Sexual Harassment Suit Against Him

Cuomo sues N.Y. AG Tish James, wants state to cover legal bills in trooper harass suit

The resigned-in-disgrace Andrew M. Cuomo has chosen a very strange way to mark the one year anniversary of his resignation announcement. Here's an excerpt from this report:

Former governor Andrew Cuomo thinks New York taxpayers should be on the hook for his legal bills.

A year to the day after announcing his resignation amid sexual harassment allegations, the disgraced Democrat filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Letitia James for failing to provide him with legal representation after one of his accusers took him to court.

Cuomo’s attorney argues in the suit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, that James’ office wrongfully denied the ex-gov’s request for counsel after a state trooper who accused him of misconduct sued him.

Lawyer Rita Glavin alleges that the denial was “arbitrary, capricious, contrary to the plain text of the statute, biased, personally and politically conflicted” as well as a dereliction of duty on James’ part.

The unnamed trooper, who alleges Cuomo repeatedly touched her inappropriately and made suggestive comments after she was appointed to his protective detail, filed a civil suit in Manhattan federal court against the former governor and two of his top aides in February.

In March, Cuomo requested the state provide him with representation or pay for private counsel in connection with the suit, according to court documents.

James’ office determined, however, that the state was not responsible for covering any of the ex-pol’s related legal costs.

The last we checked, allegedly engaging in the sexual harassment of a female state trooper while serving as New York's state governor is not an official responsibility of the position. That also appears to be the position of New York's Attorney General's office:

A representative for the attorney general’s office argued that Cuomo is “trying to force New Yorkers to pay his legal bills because he believes sexual harassment was within his ‘scope of employment’ as governor.”

“Sexually harassing young women who work for you is not part of anyone’s job description,’ James spokeswoman Delaney Kemper said. “Taxpayers should not have to pony up for legal bills that could reach millions of dollars so Mr. Cuomo’s lawyer can attack survivors of his abuse.”

In other news, the pace of stories on Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals has stalled over the last several weeks. That's also true of the U.S. Department of Justice's probe of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's COVID veterans homes deaths scandal, which hasn't shown any sign of progress in months.

2 August 2022: Cuomo Knew of Danger in Introducing COVID into Nursing Homes 10 Days Before Deadly Directive

Cuomo feared COVID 'fire' in nursing homes before notorious order: Kushner

If there was any question Andrew M. Cuomo knew enacting his deadly 25 March 2020 directive would have dire consequences, there's less doubt today following this report on part of Trump administration advisor Jared Kushner's forthcoming memoir. Here's an excerpt:

Then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the coronavirus could burn through nursing homes “like fire through dry grass” 10 days before he issued an infamous March 2020 executive order that required nursing homes to take COVID-19-positive patients, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner reveals in an upcoming memoir.

Relatives of nursing home residents who died following Cuomo’s order told The Post the disclosure heightens their outrage and underscores the need for accountability.

Kushner wrote that Cuomo specifically mentioned possible nursing home horrors in a 30-minute phone call as Kushner helped lead the early White House pandemic response as infections mounted in New York.

In the March 15 call, Cuomo allegedly told Kushner, “For nursing homes, this could be like fire through dry grass.”

Cuomo’s subsequent March 25 order said nursing homes weren’t allowed to turn away patients “solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” which the families of victims said was a death sentence for vulnerable elderly residents....

Cuomo’s controversial nursing home policy remained in effect until May 10 and was intended to ease hospital crowding. Kushner does not go into detail on the nursing home scandal in his nearly 500-page tome, “Breaking History,” which is due out Aug. 23.

In other words, Cuomo knew the policy would constitute reckless endangerment for New York's nursing home residents, if not outright criminal negligence in contributing to excess COVID deaths in this highly vulnerable population.

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.