Following Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D-NY) resignation, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will take over, and on Wednesday, the incoming governor hinted that she may be willing to release additional data regarding Cuomo’s nursing home disaster.
The Daily Caller reported that Hochul on Wednesday gave her first press conference since Cuomo announced he would resign and was asked about releasing additional nursing home data relating to Cuomo’s policy of forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-19-positive patients and then covering up the fallout.
“My administration will be fully transparent when I am governor,” Hochul replied. “I am not governor yet.”
Cuomo’s nursing home policy resulted in thousands of deaths among those most vulnerable to COVID-19. Cuomo and his aides attempted to cover up the failure by altering a report to cut the number of deaths in half. Cuomo still faces investigations into the scandal, including how the report being altered related to Cuomo’s book about pandemic “leadership.”
Hochul’s response comes after it was reported that prior to resigning, Cuomo attempted to cut a deal with state legislators to avoid impeachment if he agreed to not run for a fourth term more than a year from now.
“New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to cut a deal with the state Legislature — offering to drop his bid for a fourth term in exchange for not getting impeached,” the New York Post reported just one day before Cuomo announced he would resign.
The outlet reported that Cuomo tried to make this deal before New York Attorney General Letitia James released her scathing report finding 11 women credible who accused the governor of sexual harassment. The report also found that Cuomo’s aides attempted to smear his most prominent accuser, Lindsey Boylan, by releasing her confidential files to various media outlets.
Included in James’ report is a section detailing how one of Cuomo’s top advisers, Rich Azzopardi, sent confidential personnel information about one of Cuomo’s accusers to multiple media outlets. Under the headline “The Release of Confidential Files Relating to Ms. [Lindsey] Boylan,” the AG’s office explained how shortly after Boylan publicly accused Cuomo of sexual harassment in a tweet, one of Cuomo’s top aides requested Boylan’s “full file.”
DeRosa shared Boylan’s December 2020 tweets with Alphonso David, former counsel to Cuomo, and Linda Lacewell, the Superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services. DeRosa at that time texted David asking to see Boylan’s “full file,” according to the AG report.
David, who at that time was the president of the Human Rights campaign, told DeRosa that another staffer should be able to provide the file for Boylan’s time in the Governor’s office. On December 11, 2020, just two days after Boylan’s first tweet about Cuomo, David sent Azzopardi “files relating to his investigation into and counseling of Ms. Boylan shortly before her departure from the Executive Chamber that he had retained and taken with him when he left the Executive Chamber.”