Cuomo probe to include COVID-19 tests for family
ALBANY, N.Y. – The impeachment investigation into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expanding to examine if the governor unlawfully used his office to provide his family members with special access to scarce coronavirus tests a year ago, a state lawmaker said.
The office of Attorney General Letitia James, Cuomo’s fellow Democrat, issued a statement Thursday urging New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate the alleged preferential testing after reports were published in the Times Union of Albany, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
“The recent reports alleging there was preferential treatment given for COVID-19 testing are troubling,” the statement read. “While we do not have jurisdiction to investigate this matter, it’s imperative that JCOPE look into it immediately.”
Walt McClure, a spokesperson for the ethics commission, said the commission could not comment “on anything that is or might be an investigative matter.”
The impeachment investigation’s primary focus remains on allegations of sexual harassment against Cuomo, as well as reports that his administration intentionally underreported virus deaths at nursing homes and glazed over bridge safety concerns, but the alleged preferential testing will be explored, Assembly Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Lavine said.
Members of Cuomo’s family including his brother, CNN journalist Chris Cuomo; his mother; and at least one of his three sisters were tested by top health department officials, some of them several times, according to the Times Union of Albany.
The testing of people closely tied to the governor was carried out by highranking state health officials, The New York Times reported. It mostly happened in March 2020.
The newspapers cited multiple people with direct knowledge of the testing but did not identify them.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, did not deny that the administration had extended special treatment to people close to the governor but sought to dispute the notion. The governor’s office didn’t provide responses to a list of questions from The Associated Press, including whether the governor disputes the reports.
“In the early days of this pandemic, when there was a heavy emphasis on contact tracing, we were absolutely going above and beyond to get people tested,” Azzopardi said in a statement, adding that the effort included “in some instances going to people’s homes – and door-to-door in places like New Rochelle – to take samples from those believed to have been exposed to COVID in order to identify cases” and to prevent others from developing the disease.
The state Assembly is conducting the investigation into whether there are grounds to impeach the governor. It has hired a Manhattan law firm to lead the probe looking into whether Cuomo used his office to sexually harass or assault female employees, unlawfully withheld the real nursing home death count, covered up structural bolt issues on a state bridge that opened in 2017 to replace the former Tappan Zee bridge or provided preferential testing.