(Headline USA) The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after congressional Republicans recommended that he be charged with lying over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington follows a referral from Rep. James Comer, Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, over statements Cuomo made to lawmakers investigating his management of the pandemic when the virus was spreading through nursing homes, the person said. The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A spokesperson for Cuomo said Tuesday that the former governor was never informed of any such investigation.

Andrew Cuomo LIED to Congress about his deadly nursing home scandal.

That’s why Chairman Comer (@RepJamesComer) is re-upping his referral to the DOJ (@TheJusticeDept / @AGPamBondi) for criminal charges.

Seniors in New York DIED under Cuomo’s must-admit nursing home order. pic.twitter.com/FIZxp0ujgk

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) April 21, 2025

 

The investigation was first reported Tuesday by The New York Times. The Justice Department declined Tuesday to comment. Spokespeople for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

According to last year’s House coronavirus subcommittee report, Cuomo had reviewed, edited, and even drafted portions of a purportedly independent and peer-reviewed New York State Department of Health report, which was used to support his deadly pandemic-era nursing home policies.

However, Cuomo told the subcommittee in his June transcribed interview that he had nothing to do with that report. Cuomo’s lie is why the House GOP wants him criminally charged.

“Andrew Cuomo is a man with a history of corruption and deceit, now caught red-handed lying to Congress during the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the COVID-19 nursing home tragedy in New York,” Comer said earlier this year.

“This wasn’t a slip-up—it was a calculated cover-up by a man seeking to shield himself from responsibility for the devastating loss of life in New York’s nursing homes.”

The Cuomo administration came under significant scrutiny for a policy that at first required nursing homes to readmit recovering COVID-19 patients in an effort to avoid hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. That was on top of state fatality figures that significantly undercounted the deaths.

In June, an investigation into New York’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic found former Gov. Cuomo’s “top down” approach of dictating public health policy through his office—rather than coordinating with state and local agencies—sewed confusion during the crisis.

In the state’s nursing homes, where some 15,000 people died, the administration’s lack of communication with agencies and facilities resulted in wasted resources and mistrust — not to mention anxiety for residents’ loved ones, according to the independent probe commissioned by current Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022.

Cuomo resigned from office in August 2021, amid sexual harassment allegations, which he denies. Hochul, a fellow Democrat who had been Cuomo’s lieutenant, inherited the job and was reelected the follow year.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press