Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo “improperly attempted to influence” a senior aide's testimony during a congressional investigation into his administration's disastrous order that forcibly admitted COVID-19 patients to nursing homes, a bombshell new House document alleges.
As the House Select COVID-19 Subcommittee was investigating the March 25, 2020, nursing home “involuntary admissions” order, witness Jim Malatras said the 66-year-old former governor made phone calls and text messages that “made him feel uncomfortable,” according to new evidence in a subcommittee staff memo obtained exclusively by The Washington Post.
The House COVID committee said in a memo earlier this month that Cuomo had reached out to Malatras at least once during the course of the investigation to “check in on how he was doing.”
But supplemental documents to that memo released Wednesday show text messages and letters from Malatras show Cuomo has reached out to the former aide three times since the beginning of 2021, and always within 48 hours of the Select Subcommittee taking concrete action in its nursing home investigation.
“It includes one instance of conduct that was not publicly disclosed and known only to Mr. Cuomo and his counsel,” the addendum states. “The evidence in this memo supports the conclusion that former Governor Andrew Cuomo improperly influenced witness testimony and engaged in conduct consistent with attempting to obstruct the Select Subcommittee's investigation.”
The Washington Post has reached out to Governor Cuomo's spokesperson and attorney for comment.
Malatras, a former state operations director and chancellor of the State University of New York System, was the only former member of Cuomo's office to admit to the COVID committee that former Governor Cuomo, through his orders, “edited” the infamous New York State Department of Health report that undercounted the true number of deaths in nursing homes.
Despite Malatras' resignation in December 2021 and his dismissal for disparaging women who accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct, he didn't hear from the former governor until the day after a House subcommittee held its first hearing on New York's nursing home unrest.
“Hi Jim. This is Andrew Cuomo. It's been a while. I want you to know I'm always thinking about you. I'm so sorry for the pain you've gone through,” the May 18, 2023 text message reads.
“I apologize for being a lightning rod for hurting you,” Cuomo continued. “I've always known politics is a dirty business, but the level of it surprised even me.”
“I hear you're doing well and if there's anything I can do to help, of course I will. I know it hurts,” he added. “A spanking hurts, but the strength to stand up is what makes a man.”
Nine months later, Cuomo texted Malatras again, this time two days after the subcommittee invited the governor's former aide to testify.
“Hi Jim. I wanted to see how you're doing now that the dust has settled and the truth is beginning to emerge,” the former governor wrote in a message on Feb. 18, 2024. “I'm sure you'll do well, as quality and talent will surely win in the end. Best of luck, Andrew.”
In a follow-up letter to the COVID committee last week, Malatras described the second email as “a kind of signal, or a signal, alerting me that he is aware that a Select House Subcommittee has requested that I testify regarding issues related to the Administration's COVID-19 response.”
After the subcommittee confirmed it would hold a hearing with the former governor on July 15, Governor Cuomo also called Malatras to begin discussing the nursing home mandate.
“During our conversation he spoke about nursing homes and specifically stated that the situation in New York is much better than he knew it to be, and he referenced several facts and data points to prove his point,” Malatras said in a follow-up letter.
“I interpreted the call as an attempt to inform me of the positive information he was going to testify about,” he wrote. “I was anxious that contradicting or disagreeing with Governor Cuomo on the phone, or even discussing the matter, might prejudice the upcoming Select Subcommittee hearing in some way, so I listened to what he had to say about nursing homes and did not respond.”
At the time, only Governor Cuomo and his lawyers knew that a hearing was scheduled for September 10th.
The COVID committee also alleged that Cuomo's lawyer, Rita Glavin, had threatened two majority staff lawyers with possible disbarment while investigating the alleged interference of Malatras as a witness.
Glavin cited the bar rules of the states in which he is licensed to practice law and pointed to the disbarment of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani this summer, the commission's addendum and the newspaper's simultaneous reporting. The Washington Post show.
The memo adds that the move “is not the first time Mr. Glavin has resorted to such intimidation tactics against Select Subcommittee staff.”
In a Sept. 9 email to the subcommittee, Glavin said there was “nothing malicious” in Cuomo's messages and that he did not “suggest” that the former governor “might have attempted to [to] Any illegal conduct is completely unsupported.”
She also noted that Malatras never explicitly stated that he “understood the text messages to be an attempt to improperly influence or obstruct this investigation,” and accused the majority staff memo of “intentionally” misleading the public.
In a recorded interview with the House COVID Committee in June, Governor Cuomo denied any involvement in a July 6, 2020 Department of Health report that excluded non-facility deaths from the final death toll.
But new emails reported by The New York Times provide further support for Malatras' account of the former governor's involvement.
“I have attached the Governor's redactions for your review,” Farrah Kennedy, a former senior staff member to the governor, wrote in a June 23, 2020 email.
At least four of Gov. Cuomo's aides told House COVID investigators that another email sent by Secretary to the Governor Stephanie Bent – one that warned nursing home mandates “would go down in history as a monumental blunder” – was likely dictated by the governor himself.
At a hearing earlier this month, Governor Cuomo acknowledged that his office had some involvement.
“There's certainly going to be executive branch involvement,” Cuomo told House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) during a question-and-answer session.
“If former Governor Cuomo was involved in drafting the July 6 report, it would directly contradict his testimony before the Select Subcommittee and potentially constitute a false statement,” the addendum states.
Cuomo was not under oath during his closed-door testimony this year, but a transcript of the interview shows he was informed he could face criminal prosecution if he knowingly made a false statement.
He testified under oath before a House select subcommittee at a hearing earlier this month.
Malatras testified in a May 2024 transcribed interview that Gov. Cuomo's top aide, Melissa DeRosa, made the final decision to exclude the non-facility deaths, and that both DeRosa and Cuomo reviewed and edited a July 2020 Department of Health report that undercounted COVID deaths by about 46%.
Then-New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker released the full internal data in January 2021, six months after the non-peer-reviewed study fabricated by Cuomo's office was published, and revised the death toll from 8,711 to 12,743.
Cuomo also denied in a recorded interview in June and at a hearing in September that he had any involvement in drafting or knowledge of the nursing home order when it was issued, although former Deputy Health Secretary Bradley Hutton testified that the governor's office “absolutely” approved the order.
As a result, 9,000 recovering COVID patients have been admitted or readmitted to aged care homes across the state without being asked to test positive for the virus.
More than 15,000 New York elderly care facility residents have died during the pandemic.
“The Select Subcommittee continues to conduct a thorough and fact-based investigation. As such, the Select Subcommittee is considering all available avenues to hold former Governor Cuomo accountable,” the memo adds.
The subcommittee issued a subpoena to New York Gov. Kathy Hockle this month seeking additional records still pending production that, based on a description of email exchanges between Cuomo's aides, “also provide evidence corroborating Dr. Malatras' testimony.”
