Disgraced former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has agreed to look earlier than a panel of Home lawmakers and focus on his administration’s controversial dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York nursing properties, the chairman of the committee stated Friday.
“Governor Cuomo will likely be showing earlier than our choose Subcommittee on the Pandemic on June 11,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) told CNN host Jake Tapper.
“This will likely be a transcribed interview at 10 a.m.,” Wenstrup added, indicating that his testimony will happen behind closed doorways.
Cuomo’s settlement to testify comes greater than a month after the Republican-led Home Choose Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic issued a subpoena for his testimony.
The three-term Democrat resigned in 2021 amid a wave of scandals, together with the alleged cover-up of COVID-19 deaths in New York nursing properties.
The ex-gov denies that his administration’s March 2020 policy requiring nursing properties to just accept COVID-19-positive sufferers led to extra deaths.
Practically two years later, New York’s comptroller discovered that Cuomo had “misled the general public” in undercounting such deaths by greater than 50%.
Cuomo’s order doubtlessly brought about 1,000 extra nursing residence deaths, in accordance with an evaluation by The Empire Middle.
“I’m attempting to study why he would do one thing like this,” Wenstrup advised Tapper. “As a physician who has handled infections, it goes in opposition to all medical frequent sense to take somebody who was extremely contagious and put them amongst probably the most weak.”
Wenstrup famous that his committee first reached out to Cuomo about 9 months in the past, however the former governor “ignored on lots of our requests.”
A spokesman for the previous governor disputed Wenstrupt’s declare.
“There’s no information right here, we agreed to do that months in the past,” Cuomo rep Wealthy Azzopardi stated in a press release.
“That is pure politics and easy reality stays that this concern has been reviewed thrice by the Division of Justice underneath Trump and Biden, in addition to Congress and the Manhattan District Legal professional who discovered no there there,” he added. “Any actual evaluation would give attention to the ten different states with related insurance policies, crimson and blue alike.”
The Home panel additionally introduced this week that Dr. Anthony Fauci has agreed to testify on the origins and authorities response to the pandemic.
His testimony is slated for June 3.