{"id":75595,"date":"2021-07-25T13:29:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T17:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=75595"},"modified":"2021-07-25T13:29:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T17:29:08","slug":"bidens-doj-blesses-gov-cuomos-geriatric-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=75595","title":{"rendered":"Biden’s DOJ Blesses Gov. Cuomo’s Geriatric Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOJ declines to investigate Cuomo\u2019s handling of covid-19 in nursing homes<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Max Hauptman | The Washignton Post
\nVia MSN<\/p>\n

The U.S. Justice Department announced Saturday that it will not conduct a civil investigation into New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D)’s handling of coronavirus cases in state nursing facilities.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent to New York Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) on Friday, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joe Gaeta wrote that the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division had requested information on \u201cnursing facilities run by, or for, the State of New York\u201d last August. After a review, the letter stated that the department would decline to open an investigation into any public nursing facility in the state based on violations of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.<\/p>\n

Zeldin had requested the investigation earlier this year, adding to the growing number of state and federal inquiries into the New York governor.<\/p>\n

Zeldin, a Republican candidate in next year\u2019s gubernatorial race who represents a congressional district in Long Island, released a statement Friday, attacking the Justice Department for its decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe families and loved ones of the victims of Governor Cuomo\u2019s failed leadership deserve transparency, accountability and the truth about the lengths of the Cuomo administration\u2019s cover up and corruption,\u201d said Zeldin. \u201cThe Department of Justice has now chosen to willfully participate in the effort to deny the public answers and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuomo\u2019s handling of coronavirus cases in the early days of the pandemic has been the source of controversy after the state\u00a0ordered<\/a>\u00a0nursing homes to accept discharging hospital patients, regardless of a suspected or positive diagnosis of the virus. Cuomo\u2019s office was\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0of downplaying and undercounting the subsequent death toll in nursing homes.<\/p>\n

In January, a report by New York Attorney General Letitia James\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that, \u201ca larger number of nursing home residents died from covid-19 than the New York State Department of Health\u2019s (DOH) published nursing home data reflected and may have been undercounted by as much as 50 percent.\u201d That report also found that many nursing-home facilities did not properly isolate residents who had tested positive for the coronavirus or screen employees for potential infections.<\/p>\n

Last July, New York health officials released a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0denying that their policies had caused any increase in fatalities.<\/p>\n

The New York governor\u2019s office remains under state and federal scrutiny over multiple questions. The U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Brooklyn is conducting an investigation into the governor\u2019s office for its nursing home policies and allegedly undercounting the number of fatalities. The U.S. attorney\u2019s office did not comment Saturday on that investigation. The New York attorney general\u2019s office continues to\u00a0investigate<\/a> allegations of sexual harassment against the governor as well as the more than $5 million sum the governor received for a book he authored about the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo is also under investigation for allegedly giving preferential treatment to family members for coronavirus testing.<\/p>\n

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who earlier this year was named chair of the House Republican Conference, also decried what she\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0a \u201cshameful\u201d decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Biden is now complicit in these deaths,\u201d the congresswoman said in a tweet .<\/p>\n

Cuomo\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Last August, the Department of Justice\u00a0requested<\/a>\u00a0data from four states \u2014 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan \u2014 that had issued orders requiring coronavirus patients to be admitted to nursing facilities. The department said at the time that these actions \u201cmay have resulted in deaths\u201d of patients at said facilities. In October, the department also opened an investigation into the conditions at two nursing facilities operated by New Jersey.<\/p>\n

In addition to New York, the Department of Justice has also declined to open investigations in any of the other states from which it initially requested data. Gaeta delivered the news in a separate letter to Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.).<\/p>\n

Scalise, the ranking Republican member of the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis,\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0the decision \u201coutrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shayna Jacobs contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/us\/doj-declines-to-investigate-cuomo-s-handling-of-covid-19-in-nursing-homes\/ar-AAMwGwL<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOJ declines to investigate Cuomo\u2019s handling of covid-19 in nursing homes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}