Cuomo subpoenaed by House panel over Covid response

ALBANY, N.Y. — Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was issued a subpoena Tuesday by the Republican-led House subcommittee investigating the governmental response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The subpoena orders Cuomo to appear before the panel for a deposition on May 24. The order to sit for the House lawmakers comes after the panel has also requested former members of his administration be interviewed, including former top aide Melissa DeRosa.

Cuomo is the first member of his former administration to be issued a subpoena by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which was first reported by ABC News. Former state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker was previously interviewed by panel.

Cuomo became a national figure during the early weeks of the pandemic with his daily briefings from his office in Albany and as the state was the first epicenter of the virus.

But questions were raised more than a month into the crisis after a state order in March 2020 that barred nursing homes and assisted living facilities from turning away Covid positive patients as officials feared hospitals would be overrun.

Approximately 15,000 nursing home residents died, and his administration later acknowledged it had withheld information.

“Not only did the former Governor put the elderly in harm’s way, but he also attempted to cover-up his failures by hiding the true nursing home death rate,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup, the Ohio Republican who chairs the subcommittee, said in a statement. “It appears that politics, not medicine, was responsible for these decisions. And that while Mr. Cuomo is adept at seeking legal advice, he is not necessarily adept at seeking medical advice.”

Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior, has defended his administration’s response to the pandemic and asserted Republicans were playing politics with the criticism over nursing home policy.

Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi blasted House Republicans, knocking the conference for failing to approve an aid package to Ukraine and for being able to adopt a federal budget.

“Instead, they continue to play politics with Covid and weaponize people’s pain and loss of loved ones,” he said. “Congress is officially a circus, and they are nothing but clowns.”

The subpoena is the latest legal woe for the ex-governor, who is also weighing a run for New York City mayor.

Cuomo separately faces a lawsuit by a former member of the State Police who has accused him of harassment. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Multiple investigations over Cuomo’s nursing home policies by the Department of Justice and state and local investigators did not lead to any conclusions of wrongdoing.

Cuomo’s lawyer had tried to stave off a subpoena. Attorney Rita Glavin in a letter sent Monday proposed a voluntary interview before the committee with four potential dates in August.

“To be clear, Gov. Cuomo has been and remains cooperative,” she wrote.