Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to “inappropriately influence” a prime aide’s testimony throughout a congressional investigation into his administration’s disastrous mandate that compelled COVID-19 sufferers into nursing properties, a bombshell new Home doc claimed.
Witness Jim Malatras mentioned the 66-year-old ex-governor made him “uncomfortable” by calling and texting him because the Home Choose Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic probed the March 25, 2020 “must admit” order for nursing properties, based on new proof in a subcommittee workers memo completely obtained by The Publish.
The Home COVID panel revealed in a memo earlier this month that Cuomo had reached out to Malatras to “check in” at the least as soon as throughout the course of their investigation.
However in an addendum to that memo launched Wednesday, textual content messages and a letter from Malatras present Cuomo reached out to his ex-aide thrice since early 2021 — and at all times “inside 48 hours of the Choose Subcommittee taking a particular motion in its nursing dwelling investigation.
“This includes one action that was not public and only known by Mr. Cuomo and his counsel,” the addendum states. “The evidence in this Memo supports the finding that former Governor Andrew Cuomo acted in a manner consistent with an attempt to inappropriately influence the testimony of a witness and obstruct the Select Subcommittee’s investigation.”
The Publish has reached out to Cuomo’s spokesman and lawyer for remark.
Malatras, a former director of state operations and chancellor of the State College of New York system, was the one former member of Cuomo’s workplace to substantiate to the COVID committee that the previous governor “edited” a infamous New York Division of Well being report that deflated the true nursing dwelling demise rely because of the order.
Malatras resigned in December 2021 and hadn’t heard from the previous governor — regardless of having been sacked for smearing a girl who accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct — till someday after the Home subcommittee held its first listening to on the New York nursing dwelling fiasco.
“Hello Jim, Andrew Cuomo here. It’s been a long time. I just want you to know I think about you often. I am very sorry for the pain you went through,” reads the Could 18, 2023, textual content message.
“I am sorry that I was the lightning rod that hurt you,” Cuomo went on. “I always knew politics was a nasty business but the level surprised even me.”
“I hear you are doing well and if there’s anything I can ever do to help you of course I will. I know it hurts,” he added, “getting knocked on your ass hurts but it’s the getting up that makes the man.”
9 months later, Cuomo once more texted Malatras; this time, two days after the subcommittee invited the governor’s former aide to testify.
“Hello Jim, now that the dust has settled, and the truth is being revealed, I wanted to check in with you and see how you are doing,” the ex-governor wrote in a Feb. 18, 2024, message. “I am sure that you will do well because quality and talent always wins in the end. All the best, Andrew.”
In follow-up letter despatched final week to the COVID panel, Malatras characterised the second textual content as “a type of flare — or signal — alerting me that he was aware that the House Select Subcommittee had requested that I testify on issues related to the administration’s handling of the Covid-19 response.”
As soon as the subcommittee confirmed a public listening to with the previous governor on July 15, Cuomo additionally referred to as Malatras and started discussing the nursing dwelling mandate.
“As part of the conversation he spoke about nursing homes, specifically describing how the story in New York was much better than I even knew it to be and mentioned several facts and datapoints to demonstrate his point,” Malatras mentioned in his follow-up letter.
“I interpreted the call as an effort to make me aware of the positive information about which he intended to testify,” he wrote. “I only listened and did not respond to his discussion on nursing homes, because I was uncomfortable having to potentially contradict or disagree with Governor Cuomo on the call, or somehow prejudicing the upcoming Select Subcommittee hearing by discussing it at all.”
On the time, solely Cuomo and his attorneys have been conscious {that a} public listening to was scheduled for Sept. 10.
The COVID panel additionally claimed that Cuomo’s lawyer, Rita Glavin, seemingly threatened two attorneys on the bulk’s workers with a possible disbarment criticism as they probed the obvious interference with Malatras as a witness.
Glavin introduced up bar guidelines for states they have been licensed in and referenced former New York Metropolis Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s disbarment earlier this summer season, the panel’s addendum and contemporaneous reporting within the Washington Publish present.
The transfer was “not the first time that Ms. Glavin has resorted to such intimidation tactics on Select Subcommittee staff,” based on the memo addendum.
In a Sept. 9 e-mail to the subcommittee, Glavin mentioned there was “nothing nefarious” about Cuomo’s messages and that any “suggestions” the previous governor “may have been attempting [to] violate the law are entirely unsupported.”
She additional accused the bulk workers memo of “deliberately” making an attempt to mislead the general public by noting that Malatras by no means explicitly mentioned “he understood the text message to be an effort to improperly influence him or obstruct this investigation.”
Cuomo in his June transcribed interview with the Home COVID panel denied any involvement within the July 6, 2020, DOH report that eliminated out-of-facility deaths from the ultimate fatality rely.
Nonetheless, new emails reported by the New York Instances additional substantiate Malatras’ testimony concerning the former governor’s involvement.
A former senior workers member to the governor, Farah Kennedy, in a June 23, 2020, e-mail wrote: “Governor’s edits are attached for your review.”
No less than 4 Cuomo aides additionally advised Home COVID investigators that one other e-mail from the governor’s secretary, Stephanie Bento — that warned the nursing dwelling mandate was “going to be the great debacle in the history books” — was doubtless dictated by the governor himself.
In his public listening to earlier this month, Cuomo admitted that there was a level of involvement by his workplace.
“I’m sure the Executive Chamber was involved,” Cuomo advised Home Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) throughout a line of questioning.
“If former Governor Cuomo was involved in the drafting of the July 6 Report, it would directly contradict his testimony before the Select Subcommittee and may constitute a false statement,” the addendum notes.
Cuomo wasn’t sworn in beneath oath for his closed-door testimony this yr, however was knowledgeable he may face prison prosecution if he knowingly made false statements, his interview transcript exhibits.
He did testify beneath oath earlier than the Home choose subcommittee throughout his public listening to earlier this month.
Malatras testified in a Could 2024 transcribed interview that prime Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa made the ultimate resolution to exclude out-of-facility deaths — and that each she and Cuomo reviewed and edited the July 2020 DOH report, which low-balled the COVID fatalities by round 46%.
Then-New York well being commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker launched the complete inside information in January 2021, six months after the non-peer-reviewed research cooked up by Cuomo’s workplace got here out, shifting the demise rely from 8,711 to 12,743.
Cuomo additionally denied in his June transcribed interview and September public listening to that he was conscious or concerned within the drafting of the nursing dwelling order when it was issued — although ex-deputy well being commissioner Bradley Hutton testifying that the governor’s workplace had “absolutely” signed off on the order.
Consequently, 9,000 recovering COVID sufferers have been admitted or re-admitted in senior care services statewide, with no requirement to check whether or not they have been optimistic for the virus.
Greater than 15,000 New Yorkers from senior care services died throughout the pandemic.
“The Select Subcommittee is continuing its thorough and fact driven investigation. Accordingly, the Select Subcommittee is evaluating all avenues at its disposal to hold former Governor Cuomo accountable,” the memo addendum states.
The subcommittee this month subpoenaed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for extra information which can be nonetheless being withheld, which based mostly on descriptions in e-mail correspondence between Cuomo aides would additionally “provide evidence that supports Dr. Malatras’ testimony.”
