DOJ decides not to open a civil rights investigation into New York state nursing homes after Gov. Cuomo ordered facilities to take COVID-19 patients in early days of pandemic
The Justice Department has decided not to open a civil rights investigation into government-run nursing homes in New York state after Governor Andrew Cuomo was slammed for ordering facilities to take back COVID-19 patients in the early days of pandemic.
The DOJ's Office of Legislative Affairs sent a letter Friday to several Republican members of Congress announcing that the department's civil rights division will not probe whether the state violated the civil rights of residents in its care homes.
Under the Trump administration last August, the DOJ requested data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes from four Democrat states - New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The request came as questions mounted over whether some states, especially New York, inadvertently worsened the pandemic death toll through controversial policies.
Cuomo had issued a directive on March 25 2020 ordering nursing homes to readmit COVID-positive patients because of a lack of space in hospitals.
The move was slammed for costing many lives given the elderly were especially vulnerable and that nursing homes were hotbeds for the virus.
The Justice Department has decided not to open a civil rights investigation into government-run nursing homes in New York state after Governor Andrew Cuomo (pictured) was slammed for ordering facilities to take back COVID-19 patients in the early days of pandemic
In a letter sent to several Republicans who had demanded an investigation, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joe Gaeta said civil rights division lawyers had reviewed the data sent by New York, along with additional information.
'Based on that review, we have decided not to open a CRIPA investigation of any public nursing facility within New York at this time,' Gaeta wrote, referring to the federal Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, which empowers the Justice Department to investigate allegations about unlawful conditions in government-run residences.
The Justice Department sent similar letters earlier in the week to officials in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Cuomo's spokesperson Richard Azzopardi declined to comment on the development.
Republican congressman Steve Scalise, a staunch Trump ally, slammed the DOJ's decision as 'outrageous' and demanded justice for the families of people who died in the state's nursing homes.
'[It is] outrageous that the Department of Justice refuses to investigate the deadly 'must admit' orders issued by governors in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan that resulted in the deaths of thousands of senior citizens,' he told the New York Post in a statement.
A patient is loaded into an ambulance by emergency medical workers outside Cobble Hill Health Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York in April 2020
Nursing home residents wave to their relatives through their windows last June in new York. Under the Trump administration last August, the DOJ requested data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes from four Democrat states including New York
'Where is the justice for nursing home victims and their grieving families? These deadly orders contradicted the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's] guidance, and needlessly endangered the most vulnerable among us to the deadly COVID-19 virus,' Scalise said.
Scalise also accused Cuomo of a 'cover up' of the death toll.
'Grieving families deserve answers and accountability. It's unconscionable that Biden's Department of Justice refuses to investigate the deadly actions that went against CDC's medical guidance taken in these states,' he said.
Rep. Elise Stefanik said the move from the Biden administration's DOJ 'makes President Biden complicit in the criminal corruption scandal and coverup of deaths of thousands of vulnerable seniors.'
Cuomo, a Democrat, has previously accused Trump's DOJ of initiating the inquiry for purely political reasons.
He has defended the decision to bar nursing homes from rejecting COVID-19 patients during the worst weeks of the pandemic last March, saying the state was desperate at the time to move recovering patients out of overwhelmed hospitals.
He also pointed the finger at Trump for the policy saying it came from federal guidance.
The controversial policy was in place for more than six weeks before Cuomo reversed it on May 10 and barred nursing homes from accepting COVID-19 patients without a negative test first.
Republican congressman Steve Scalise (pictured) slammed the DOJ's decision not to open an investigation as 'outrageous' and demanded justice for the families of people who died in the state's nursing homes
Cuomo has since been accused of intentionally hiding the data from Trump's DOJ in a sign of a huge cover-up.
In February, Cuomo's top aide Melissa DeRosa admitted in a call with Democratic state legislators that officials 'froze' in August when then-President Donald Trump's Department of Justice asked for data on the number of nursing home residents who died from the virus.
DeRosa said on the call that the state then hid the damning data and rebuffed the request.
'We were in a position where we weren't sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren't sure if there was going to be an investigation,' she said.
DeRosa then walked back her claims insisting the state was 'comprehensive and transparent' with the DOJ.
Her comments came just two weeks after New York State Attorney General Letitia James revealed Cuomo's office had grossly downplayed the number of nursing home deaths by around 50 percent.
The death toll was actually 15,000, up from the 8,500 previously disclosed.
The new figures mean around one-seventh of the state's entire nursing home population of 90,000 have been killed by the virus.
Cuomo with his top aide Melissa DeRosa in 2017. DeRosa said on a February call that officials 'froze' in August when then-President Donald Trump 's Department of Justice asked for data on the number of nursing home residents who died from the virus
It was then claimed that DeRosa and other top officials successfully pushed state health officials to alter the death data in a report before it was released to the public in July.
An original version of the report said almost 10,000 nursing home residents died, they said.
The final version released to the public put the figure at 6,432.
Cuomo denied he or any of his aides altered the data on COVID-19 nursing home deaths.
Friday's letter doesn't address the status of other Justice Department inquiries into how the Cuomo administration handled data related to COVID-19 nursing home outbreaks.
The governor is also facing an inquiry over his book 'American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic'
Federal prosecutors have been examining the governor's coronavirus task force and trying to determine whether the state intentionally manipulated the data.
Meanwhile the governor is also facing an inquiry over his book 'American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic' to determine whether he unlawfully abused state resources, including staffers, to draft and promote it.
The governor was slammed for releasing the book boasting about his leadership prowess while the pandemic rumbled on.
Cuomo's office has insisted staffers who worked on the book did so voluntarily.
Investigators are also looking into whether Cuomo misused public resources by giving his family preferential COVID-19 testing in the early days of the pandemic when testing was not widespread.
As well as the scandals surrounding his handling of the pandemic, Cuomo is also being investigated by the state Attorney General Letitia James over multiple sexual harassment allegations against him.
Nine women have come forward in recent months to accuse him of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior.
Cuomo has repeatedly denied the allegations saying he 'never touched anyone inappropriately' and 'never made any inappropriate advances' but has apologized for making anyone feel 'uncomfortable.'
The governor was questioned under oath last Saturday for the first time in the probe.
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