In a stunning but long-awaited development, the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about the deadly nursing home scandal that unfolded under his watch during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cuomo, who is now attempting a political comeback as a front-runner in New York City’s mayoral race, stands accused of making materially false statements during sworn congressional testimony last June regarding the true number of nursing home deaths in New York. According to reports from *The New York Times*, the probe was initiated a month ago by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. — formerly led by Ed Martin and now helmed by none other than conservative legal firebrand Jeanine Pirro.
The facts are damning. During the early months of the pandemic, Cuomo signed a now-infamous March 25, 2020, executive order that forced nursing homes to admit COVID-positive patients without requiring any testing. The result? A preventable massacre of New York’s most vulnerable. By the time the order was finally rescinded in May, the virus had torn through care homes across the state.
While Cuomo and his media allies patted themselves on the back for his now-lampooned daily press briefings, families were burying loved ones — many of whom were knowingly placed in harm’s way by Cuomo’s mandate.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) stated bluntly that Cuomo’s team knowingly underreported COVID deaths in nursing homes by 46%, an audit Cuomo allegedly oversaw and edited himself. In sworn testimony before Congress, Cuomo claimed he had no involvement in drafting or reviewing the state’s July 2020 Department of Health report — a claim directly contradicted by internal emails and handwritten edits obtained by the subcommittee.
Among those edits: crossing out “death” to soften the language, downplaying the timeline of fatalities, and scribbling misleading statistics that underestimated the true toll. The final report curiously claimed only 6,432 nursing home deaths, while the real figure — including hospital transfers — exceeded 9,000.
Cuomo’s COVID press conferences earned him fawning coverage from liberal media outlets and even an Emmy award — since revoked. But as grieving families demanded answers, they were met with stonewalling, spin, and smug dismissals from the Governor’s office.
Now, with a criminal probe underway, the truth may finally be catching up to Cuomo.
Jeanine Pirro, now leading the DOJ’s investigation, has long called for accountability. Back in 2021, she famously declared on Fox News that Cuomo had sentenced seniors to death. She even suggested charges of negligent homicide or manslaughter should be on the table. That kind of clarity has been sorely missing from the DOJ until now — especially under Attorney General Merrick Garland, who refused to pursue charges last year after Comer initially referred Cuomo for prosecution.
The families of the victims, who have spent over four years pleading for accountability, say the investigation is long overdue.
“This investigation is not just justified, it’s overdue,” said Vivian Zayas, co-founder of Voices for Seniors, whose mother died after contracting COVID in a nursing home. “Thank God our fight has not been in vain.”
Daniel Arbeeny, another advocate whose father died in a care facility during the pandemic, echoed those sentiments: “Cuomo should be held accountable. It’s that simple.”
These are not partisan operatives — they are grieving families who were silenced, ignored, and gaslit by a media and political class more interested in protecting a liberal icon than exposing the truth.
Predictably, Cuomo’s defenders are already screaming “lawfare.” His spokesman Rich Azzopardi dismissed the investigation as “election interference,” invoking Donald Trump’s name in a desperate attempt to politicize the probe. But the real political scandal isn’t the investigation — it’s that it took this long to begin.
For years, Cuomo was shielded by the left-wing press, treated like a hero while his policy decisions caused real, measurable harm. Even now, Cuomo insists he “followed federal guidance” — despite clear evidence that the March 2020 order was a unilateral state decision.
In an interview Tuesday, Cuomo doubled down, blaming “conservative rhetoric” and even accusing grieving families of being manipulated by right-wing media. It’s a grotesque attempt to deflect from the real issue: his catastrophic leadership and his potential lies under oath.
The probe couldn’t come at a worse time for Cuomo, who just released a campaign ad touting his “leadership” during the pandemic. The ad, dripping with revisionist history, claims he built emergency hospitals and took bold action — ignoring the human toll his nursing home policy inflicted.
Democrats are scrambling to distance themselves. Socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who is currently trailing Cuomo in the polls, slammed him as corrupt but also took the opportunity to attack Trump, demonstrating the left’s inability to resist political point-scoring even in the face of tragedy.
Other candidates echoed Mamdani’s sentiment, using the scandal to call Cuomo “compromised” while also taking potshots at the former president. Apparently, even a criminal investigation into mass senior deaths can’t escape being twisted into another anti-Trump soundbite by New York’s leftist elite.
If the DOJ takes this investigation seriously — and with Pirro at the helm, there’s reason to believe it will — Cuomo could finally face the legal consequences that have eluded him for years. The potential charges aren’t trivial. Lying to Congress is a federal crime. If it’s proven that Cuomo knowingly misled lawmakers and altered public health data, criminal liability could follow.
More importantly, the American people — and especially the families who lost loved ones — deserve transparency and justice. Cuomo didn’t just make a bad call. He allegedly manipulated data, misled Congress, and engaged in a cover-up that lasted years. And he did it all while soaking in praise from a press corps more interested in Orange Man Bad narratives than holding Democrats accountable.
This isn’t just about Cuomo. It’s about a government that chose political optics over lives. It’s about a media culture that anointed a failed leader as a pandemic savior. And it’s about a justice system that must prove it can still function, even when the accused has a “D” next to his name.
Andrew Cuomo may have thought he’d escaped accountability. But the tide is turning — and this time, the people aren’t buying the spin.
