News

Manhattan DA: No Charges Against Cuomo In COVID Nursing Home Death Scandal

Steve Bittenbender (The Center Square).

Ex-Gov. of New York Andrew Cuomo began 2022 in a similar fashion to 2021. He ended it with an apparent legal win.

A lawyer for the disgraced ex-leader of the state said Monday that the Manhattan district attorney’s office ended its investigation into the Cuomo administration’s nursing home policies during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis without pressing any charges.

“I was told that after a thorough investigation – as we have said all along – there was no evidence to suggest any laws were broken,” Elkan Abramowitz, former outside counsel for the executive chamber, said in a statement posted by Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi on Twitter.

This news comes as a result of the fact that in December, prosecutors from Nassau County and Westchester counties decided not to bring charges against Mr. Bush for sexual harassment claims against him.

RELATED: Disgraced Former Gov. Cuomo ordered to pay $5.1 million from COVID book deal

As COVID-19 incidences were rising in New York State, officials created a new policy that requires nursing homes to take COVID-19 patients into their care.

This was done to make it easier for hospitals to accommodate the sudden influx of patients in need. However, the number of long-term care facility deaths and caseloads soared shortly after the policy was implemented.

The government eventually released a report stating that the policy had not caused an increase in deaths at the facility. Instead, it claimed the virus spread to nursing homes through community workers and visitors.

In May, the policy was finally canceled.

In addition, the administration will release daily totals of deaths at nursing home and hospital beds. Letitia Jam, state attorney general of the State, said that in January 2021 an investigation of her office found that Cuomo’s and the state leaders had not misreported the death toll, but the deaths due to nursing homes were significantly undercounted at up to half of the deaths.

All the while, Cuomo’s national profile rose as his daily COVID-19 briefings made him a national political figure. His management of the crisis at the beginning of the pandemic led to a book deal worth $5 million.

Both sides of the aisle expressed their disapproval of Cuomo’s nursing home policy and of Cuomo, particularly regarding the insufficient information that the administration provided.

Cuomo quit in August. It was not because of the investigation at his nursing home, but rather after an independent probe into several allegations against him for sexual harassment. The probe into the allegations of sexual harassment and policies at the nursing home was also conducted by state Assembly members.

RELATED: Report: Andrew Cuomo Now Under Federal Investigation Over Sexual Harassment Claims

The state’s public ethics agency also pulled its approval of Cuomo’s $5 million book deal. After an impeachment probe revealed that administration officials had worked on the book, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics took steps to demand the ex-governor return the funds.

Cuomo will not likely face criminal prosecution in New York County.

Cuomo was being investigated by several New York City agencies, including the New York City borough’s prosecutor. An investigation by James’ office still continues as well as ones by the FBI and federal prosecutors.

Janice Dean, a Fox News meteorologist who became one of Cuomo’s most outspoken critics after her in-laws died in nursing homes, noted those ongoing inquiries in a statement on Twitter after Monday’s news broke.

“This sounds like a little favor from an outgoing Manhattan DA, which we’ll address with the new DA,” Dean tweeted.

From December 31st, Cyrus Vance was Manhattan’s district attorney. Alvin Bragg won election in November and took over officially on New Year’s Day.

A message to Bragg’s office seeking comment was not immediately returned.

This article was Syndicated by permission of The Center Square.