Difiore among those given priority COVID-19 testing
Public health nurse, state National Guard dispatched to residence
New York Chief Judge Janet Difiore and her relatives were among the individuals who received priority COVID-19 testing last year along with members of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s family and others with ties to the governor.
A public health nurse and several members of the New York National Guard were dispatched to Difiore’s private residence in Southampton on Long Island last August to conduct the testing, according to a person familiar with the matter. The test samples were transferred to a state trooper who rushed them to a state-run laboratory where they received expedited processing.
A spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration on Friday confirmed that Difiore and her family members had been tested at her Southampton residence last summer. He said it took place after a young member of the judge’s family had tested positive for
the infectious disease.
“It was the one and only time,” said Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the Office of Court Administration. “She contacted the (state Department of Health) to see what to do and these people showed up to do what they did.”
The priority testing is one focus among several ongoing investigations of allegations against Cuomo and his administration. Two of the investigations are being conducted by the state attorney general’s office and the state Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, which is conducting an impeachment investigation of the governor. A third investigation of Cuomo’s nursing home directives and policies during the pandemic is being done by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
If there is an impeachment trial of Cuomo in the state Senate, Difiore, as the state’s chief judge and head of the Court of Appeals, would be involved in that proceeding and sit as one of the jurors.
The Times Union first reported in March that high-level members of the state health department were directed by Cuomo and health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker to conduct prioritized coronavirus testing on the governor’s relatives as well as influential people with ties to the administration.
Members of Cuomo’s family including his brother, his mother and at least one of his sisters were also tested by top health department officials — some several times, sources told the Times Union earlier.
The medical officials enlisted to do the testing, which often took place at private residences, included Dr. Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist who graduated from Harvard Medical School and in
August became a special adviser to Zucker. Adams conducted testing on Cuomo’s brother Chris, who is an anchor for CNN, at his residence on Long Island, according to the two people.
It may be a violation of state Public Officers Law for state officials to use government resources to benefit another individual, including a family member. No state officer, employee, legislator or legislative employee “should use or attempt to use his or her official position to secure unwarranted privileges or exemptions for himself or herself or others,” according to Section 74 of the law.
A State Police source on Friday said that — after one of the tests was performed on Chris Cuomo at his Southampton residence — a state trooper was directed to park at an exit along the Long Island Expressway, leave the trunk of his cruiser open and wait for the sample. The trooper then drove that sample hurriedly to the Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany, the person said.
Others who were given priority testing included Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and his wife, as well as Patrick J. Foye, head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Foye and Cotton both announced in March 2020 they had tested positive for coronavirus. Foye was tested after exhibiting symptoms, according to a spokesman for the MTA.
Cuomo has denied knowledge of the preferential testing for his relatives, but officials familiar with the matter said the governor not only was aware of the testing but had directed it be done when it involved members of his family.
Officials in the Cuomo administration have said the testing in those early days of the pandemic in March 2020 was not preferential, and they noted public nurses were being driven to private residences in New Rochelle — the site of the state’s first outbreak — to test people who were symptomatic or who had been exposed to the virus. During that period, State Police troopers were largely being tasked with driving those samples to the Wadsworth Center laboratory in Albany, which was initially the primary testing spot for coronavirus.
Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor, previously characterized the allegations of preferential treatment as “insincere efforts to rewrite
the past.”
“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 testing — including in some instances going to people’s homes, and doorto-door in places like New Rochelle — to take samples from those believed to have been exposed to COVID in order to identify cases and prevent additional ones,” Azzopardi said.
However, by the time Difiore and her relatives were given priority testing on Aug. 23, there were state-run coronavirus testing sites across the state and additional options for someone to receive a test.
The people with close ties to the governor, including his relatives, also had their samples moved to the front of the line at Wadsworth. They were referred to as “critical samples.”
Another person familiar with the matter said the “sampling missions” had unsettled some of the high-level health department officials tasked with collecting the samples at private residences — including
Adams, who had previously worked in the health department’s New York City regional office for the Healthcare Epidemiology & Infection Control Program.
Chris Cuomo had announced on March 31 last year that he had tested positive for coronavirus and would be quarantining in his Long Island residence in Southampton, where he continued doing his nightly show despite being ill.
“My brother Chris is positive for coronavirus — found out this morning,” the governor said during his daily briefing on March 31. “Now, he is going to be fine. He’s young, in good shape, strong — not as strong as he thinks — but he will be fine. But there’s a lesson in this. He’s an essential worker. ... He’s just worried about his daughter and his kids. He hopes he didn’t get them infected.”
The testing of Chris Cuomo took place in the early stages of the pandemic, at a time when many members of the public struggled to obtain coronavirus tests.
In March, when the Assembly’s Democratic Majority leaders announced
they had selected Davis Polk & Wardwell, there were concerns raised then about the independence of the law firm because of its tacit connections to Cuomo: Difiore, who was appointed by Cuomo, is married to Dennis E. Glazer, a retired attorney who had worked at Davis Polk for 31 years; he was the head of litigation practice for the firm.
Glazer is chairman of the College Council at the state University of New York’s Purchase College. He was appointed to the council by Cuomo. There is no compensation for the role but members are reimbursed for expenses.
Before being named to the Court of Appeals, Difiore was Cuomo’s first pick to chair the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
Debra Katz, an attorney for Charlotte Bennett — a former Cuomo aide who is among multiple women to accuse the governor of sexual harassment — characterized the retention of the law firm as “an unacceptable conflict of interest” in the Assembly’s investigation of Cuomo.