Cuomo accused of threatening phone call

Fallout over New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's handling of nursing home coronavirus data worsened as a critical state legislator — a fellow Democrat — accused the governor of threatening to “destroy” him during an angry call.

New York Assemblyman Ron Kim said the governor ordered him in a call last Thursday to backtrack in defence of a top Cuomo aide whose leaked comments on nursing home data sparked a bipartisan furor and compelled federal prosecutors and the FBI to open an investigation. An adviser to Cuomo said Wednesday that Kim was “lying” about the conversation. The governor also lashed out at Kim during a news conference, saying the lawmaker has a “long and hostile relationship” with his office.

The bitter public feud underscored widening political rifts over the Cuomo administration's months-long withholding of data about nursing home residents who died of the virus in outside facilities, as a growing number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers alleges that the governor obstructed justice. Legislators are calling for Cuomo to face criminal investigations and be stripped of his expanded pandemic emergency powers, after his aide's admissions last week fuelled allegations of a coverup.

In a call with Democratic state legislators on Feb. 10, secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa said officials feared last year that the nursing home data would be “used against us,” and “we froze.”

Amid a public outcry, DeRosa sought to clarify, saying officials “needed to temporarily set aside” New York lawmakers' request for information last year.

“We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ,” she said. But backlash has mounted over the past week.

Nine Democratic members of the state Assembly, including Kim, said in a letter Tuesday that they believe it is “unambiguously clear” that Cuomo intentionally obstructed justice, criticizing a “criminal use of power.”

Kim said he was about to bathe his children last Thursday when he got a call from the governor.

“The first words out of his mouth (were), `Mr. Kim, are you an honourable man?'” he recounted in an interview, saying he wrote down notes of the call shortly afterward. “I remember him saying, `You haven't seen my wrath. I bit my tongue about you for months, and I will go out tomorrow and destroy you and start telling the world how bad of a member you are, and you will be finished.'”

Cuomo shot back publicly Wednesday, saying his office had long-standing tensions with Kim dating to a rift over protections for nail salon workers. He said Kim had agreed last week to put out a statement, after saying he was misquoted.

“`Yes, I will do that,' he says. And then he never did it,” Cuomo said of Kim.