Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s cover of deaths in nursing homes from COVID-19 could lead to federal criminal charges, a former assistant attorney general has warned.
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, John Daukas – who was acting Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department under President Trump – emphasized that the multi-agency investigation was “serious, and perhaps deserved a federal criminal prosecution.” .
Daukas said Cuomo’s executive order last March required nursing homes in New York to admit hospital patients who tested positive for COVID-19, “leading to far more tragic and unnecessary deaths than reported to the public.”
“And his government appears to have been guilty of a cover up to thwart the federal government’s surveillance efforts,” Daukas wrote in the op-ed posted late Sunday.
“New York’s seemingly false statements about nursing home deaths have misled public health officials across the country at a time when they were trying to develop strategies to combat a deadly pandemic,” he wrote.
Worse, he pointed to The Post’s report on how Cuomo’s top assistant, Melissa DeRosa, admitted the true death toll was hidden for fear that the numbers would be “ used against us ” by prosecutors.
“Ms. DeRosa’s reported confessions indicate that the Cuomo government’s conduct was not only negligent, but deliberate and perhaps criminal,” wrote Daukas.
“There may be many federal criminal laws in place,” he warned.
“It is a crime to make false statements to the federal government. It is also a crime to conceal information and otherwise obstruct government investigations.
“New York may be involved in a conspiracy to defraud the US and its agencies and potentially impede justice, among other crimes,” he stressed.
“Even if it cannot be proven that the Cuomo government knowingly provided false information to the Justice Department [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services]Could New York’s willful failure to provide information constitute a criminal offense in itself – especially if it was intended to thwart a federal investigation – which is, after all, exactly what Ms. DeRosa allegedly said the government was doing, ”wrote he.