The House subcommittee on the COVID-19 pandemic has requested testimony from four disgraced former members of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration.
Speaker Brad Wenstrup (Ohio) and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said the four responders “will be forced to evaluate the use of mandatory” measures if they fail to show up for an in-person meeting, which was scheduled for an interview with House Republicans.
On Friday, letters were sent to Elizabeth Garvey, a former special counsel and senior adviser to Cuomo; Gareth Rhodes, former deputy director of the New York Department of Financial Services; James Malatras, former governor and former policy adviser; and Linda Lacewell, former director of the Department of Financial Services.
A spokesman for Cuomo told the New York Post that Republicans in the House of Representatives “politicized and weaponized” the deaths of people who died from Covid-19.
“It is unfortunate that people’s pain continues to be politicized and used to distort the truth – which means that the Department of Justice, the AG, the Manhattan District Attorney and the Assembly have critically examined this twice and found no conclusions,” he added. said spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
Azzopardi accused the panel of years of misrepresenting information about Cuomo’s response to Covid-19.
In March 2020, Cuomo issued a health order that forced elder care facilities to admit thousands of Covid-19 patients who were being discharged from hospitals. The governor’s decision was intended to lend a hand relieve the strain on overloaded hospitals in a city plagued by Covid-19 patients.
The New York state comptroller revealed that Cuomo “misled the public” after he undercounted the death toll by more than 50 percent, according to a report from Attorney General Letitia James’s (D) office. A House panel found that Cuomo caused the deaths of more than 15,000 nursing home patients.
“New Yorkers especially deserve answers,” the House pandemic panel published in October.
