Tag: andrew cuomo

OMG: NY State Senior Health Department Lawyer Claims Governor Cuomo Was “Forced” Into Signing Nursing Home Law After Sexual Misconduct “Blackmail”

A New York State Health Department lawyer was caught on undercover video claiming former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo was “forced” into signing a nursing home reform bill after sexual misconduct allegations.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was found to have sexually harassed multiple women, AG Letitia James announced in August 2021 after a 4-month investigation into the accusations.

According to NY AG Letitia James, Cuomo violated state and federal law.

James said Cuomo harassed current and former state employees and created a hostile work environment.

Cuomo resigned in disgrace on August 10, 2021, amid several criminal investigations into his sexual misconduct.

New York State Health Department lawyer Jacob Wilkinson said Cuomo was “forced” into signing a nursing home law amid the sexual misconduct allegations.

“When Cuomo was getting that investigation, he didn’t have a lot of political power,” Jacob Wilkinson said to the OMG journalist. “His political power went down, right? And so, he was pushed to sign this group of legislation,”

“Some of the allegations are 100% fake,” Wilkinson said. “Those girls who were, like, in the allegations, were sitting on his lap taking selfies with him at events.”

When asked whether Cuomo had been blackmailed, Wilkinson responded, “He kind of was. He apparently didn’t give them what they wanted. That’s why they exposed him.”

Wilkinson told the OMG journalist that the Nurses Association wrote the nursing home reform bill.

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Cuomo Refuses to Take Name off NYC Mayoral Ballot Despite Conceding Primary to Mamdani

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will reportedly remain an option on November’s general election ballot for New York City mayor, despite conceding the Democrat primary to socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday.

Sources told CNN that while Cuomo — who resigned from the governorship in 2021 after an investigation found that he allegedly sexually harassed at least 11 women — has not fully committed to continuing an all-out campaign, he will not give up his spot on the ballot as the candidate for his own party that he formed last month. 

Citing “disillusionment with the Democratic Party,” the disgraced former governor unveiled the “Fight and Deliver” Party in early May to appeal to discouraged Democrats, “as well as to independents and Republicans.”

A campaign source confirmed to CNN that Cuomo would not pull his name from the ballot ahead of Friday’s deadline to do so, though it remains unclear whether he will keep campaigning. 

With 93 percent of the votes counted, the Associated Press reports that Mamdani, a state assemblyman whose plans for NYC include city-run grocery stores and investing $65 million into “gender-affirming care” for minors and adults, has 43.5 percent over Cuomo’s 36.4 percent. 

The Democrats held a ranked-choice primary, however, and Mamdani did not reach the 50-percent vote threshold needed to win the primary outright.

Curtis Sliwa, founder of the crime-prevention volunteer group Guardian Angels, won the Republican primary uncontested. He previously ran for mayor in 2021, when he was beaten by incumbent Mayor Eric Adams by a 40-point margin. 

Like Cuomo, Adams is also running as an independent after feeling disillusioned with the Democrats, Breitbart News reported.

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Andrew Cuomo CONCEDES New York City Democrat Mayoral Primary Race – Communist Zohran Mamdani Wins!

In the race for the Democrat nomination to be mayor of New York City, Andrew Cuomo has now conceded to far left socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani, who is now poised to win the contest.

It’s amazing that Cuomo would give this up so easily without a fight.

From the 19th News:

Cuomo concedes to Zohran Mamdani in New York City mayoral primary

In an upset, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani will be the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, defeating candidates including Andrew Cuomo, who was seeking a political comeback nearly four years after he resigned as governor of New York amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Cuomo conceded the race Tuesday night, before the final results of ranked-choice voting were clear.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old self-described Democratic socialist, ran a campaign centered on making New York City more affordable. He proposed free universal child care, creating city-run grocery stores, rolling out free bus service and freezing rents on rent-stabilized units.

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Bloomberg pours more cash into Cuomo super PAC, bringing his total contribution to $8.3M

Mike Bloomberg’s vast wealth is continuing to power Andrew Cuomo’s front-running mayoral bid.

The billionaire former mayor contributed $3.3 million to a super PAC supporting Cuomo’s attempted comeback in the nation’s largest city — a donation made public on Wednesday that comes just days after Bloomberg gave $5 million to the group.

With the latest gift, Bloomberg is now single-handedly responsible for one-third of the PAC’s total haul of $24 million since it launched in March, according to a POLITICO analysis. Other real estate and finance executives who make up New York’s monied elite, including billionaire Donald Trump supporter Bill Ackman, have poured cash into the group.

A spokesperson for the super PAC, which is called Fix the City, did not comment on Bloomberg’s latest contribution.

The money — and the flood of mailers and TV ads funded by it — indicate Cuomo supporters are nervous about the rise of his principal opponent, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. The state lawmaker has been running a strong second to the ex-governor in most polls; a Marist College survey on Wednesday found Cuomo would defeat Mamdani after seven rounds of ranked-choice voting, 55 percent to 45 percent. But early voting is high in some neighborhoods that would appear to benefit Mamdani, and temperatures are expected to hit 100 degrees next Tuesday, which could suppress turnout among older New Yorkers Cuomo is counting on.

Likely motivating Bloomberg, who had a rivalry with the former governor during their overlapping tenures, are Mamdani’s far-left politics and criticism of Israel. He wants to raise taxes on the rich to pay for services like free bus fare and as recently as this week, refused to criticize the phrase “globalize the Intifada,” calling it an expression of Palestinian rights.

The former mayor endorsed Cuomo last week, and called him the “one candidate whose management experience and government know-how stand above the others.” Cuomo is 67 and worked in and around government and politics his entire career; Mamdani is 33 and counters criticisms of his thin résumé with reminders of the scandals that drove Cuomo from office.

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Cuomo campaign aide who worked for companies tied to Chinese Communist Party quits after Post queries

A mayoral campaign aide to Andrew Cuomo resigned after The Post questioned the years he spent working for companies tied to the Chinese Communist Party and his meteoric rise through the Democratic Party, which alarmed local politicos and national security experts alike.

Dr. Lining “Larry” He stepped down from his role as Cuomo’s Asian outreach director Friday, a week after The Post reached out to him and the Cuomo campaign about his extensive business ties to his native China.

He had served as an executive for a powerful state-owned conglomerate that has CCP cells embedded in its corporate hierarchy, records and news reports obtained by The Post showed. 

These links, along with his association with a NYC political operative with known Beijing ties, worried experts who study the CCP’s international influence efforts, which China calls the “United Front.”

“His position as an Asian community liaison fits with a tactical pattern that such actors are using to gain political legitimacy and influence,” said Dr. Audrye Wong, a fellow with the American Enterprise Institute and United Front expert.

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Andrew Cuomo’s pandering to the vile teachers union sets a record for shamelessness

Even in a state packed with shameless politicians, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo has long stood out — but his gyrations in wooing the United Federation of Teachers as he runs for mayor are still a marvel to behold.

To be clear: We’ve long had the impression that Cuomo privately despises New York’s teachers unions, whether on personal grounds or (conceivably!) the principled objections we share; it’s one of his most attractive qualities.

And he took on all the state’s teachers unions early in his first back term as governor, first by championing charter schools against an assault by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and then by pushing for a rigorous-sounding statewide public-schoolteacher-evaluation process — a drive for which he declared himself “the students’ lobbyist.”

The unions hate charters, but saw the evaluations as an existential threat, since the point of them was to get incompetent teachers fired; they fought back, and beat him soundly.

But now the UFT could derail his comeback run, so Cuomo’s desperate to jump if he even thinks the union might’ve said “frog!”

At a cozy sitdown with UFT boss Michael Mulgrew and union activists last weekend, the ex-gov attacked his own past support for teacher evaluations and disowned the money-saving “Tier 6” public pension reforms he pushed through as gov.

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Justice Department Opens Criminal Investigation Into Andrew Cuomo

The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into former New York governor – and current NYC Mayoral front-runner – Andrew Cuomo over his testimony on nursing home deaths during the Covid pandemic.

Last month House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) sent a resubmitted criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi, demanding the Department of Justice pursue charges against disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for lying under oath during pandemic-era investigations.

The letter, addressed directly to AG Pam Bondi, accused Cuomo of violating 18 U.S.C. §1001, a federal statute prohibiting false statements to Congress:

On October 30, 2024, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (Select Subcommittee) referred former Governor of the State of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo, for making criminally false statements in violation 18 U.S.C. §1001.1

To our knowledge, the Biden Administration ignored this referral despite clear facts and evidence. Accordingly, we request you review this referral and take appropriate action. For your reference, the referral is attached to this letter.

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.

TGP reported multiple times in 2020 how Governor Cuomo in New York implemented programs that ordered sick COVID patients back into elderly homes in the state. As a result, thousands of elderly people needlessly died in the state.

Then when the official counts of deaths in state nursing homes were requested from the DOJ, the numbers were fudged. The numbers reported were about 50% less than the real counts.

An investigation into Cuomo’s actions was put in place and Cuomo resigned as governor of the state. However, the investigation into illegal actions by Cuomo related to the huge number of nursing home deaths was dropped by both the Biden DOJ and the Manhattan DA.

“Andrew Cuomo is a man with a history of corruption and deceit, now caught red-handed lying to Congress during the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the COVID-19 nursing home tragedy in New York,” said Chairman Comer.

Read to the letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi here. The full criminal referral can be found here and an additional supporting transcript can be found here. Review former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s transcribed interview transcript here.

Cuomo is under investigation by the DC US Attorney’s Office, according to The New York Times.

The investigation was launched last month when Ed Martin was Acting DC US Attorney. Jeanine Pirro is currently the interim DC US Attorney.

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House COVID-19 panel refers Andrew Cuomo for possible prosecution for lying to Congress: report

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Wednesday night sent a referral to the Justice Department for the possible prosecution of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the New York Times reported, over allegations that he lied to Congress.

Cuomo, who was governor during the COVID-19 pandemic, issued a mandate in 2020 that required nursing homes in the state to admit untested or possibly contagious patients. It resulted in the deaths of over 15,000 people. 

The panel reportedly accused Cuomo of participating in a “conscious, calculated effort” to avoid accountability for the thousands of nursing homes deaths that occurred from COVID-19, and of lying behind closed doors.

Cuomo had testified to the panel that he had not reviewed a State Health Department report about the nursing home deaths, but the New York Times reported that Cuomo did review it and helped write portions of an early draft of it.

The referral was signed by subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup, according to the outlet.

“Mr. Cuomo provided false statements to the select subcommittee in what appears to be a conscious, calculated effort to insulate himself from accountability,” Wenstrup wrote in the referral. “The Department of Justice should consider Mr. Cuomo’s prior allegedly wrongful conduct when evaluating whether to charge him for the false statements described.”

The former governor’s spokesman Richard Azzopardi defended Cuomo in a statement to the outlet and claimed he had testified that he did not remember having a role in the report.

“This taxpayer-funded farce is an illegal use of Congress’s investigative authority,” Azzopardi said. “The governor said he didn’t recall because he didn’t recall. The committee lied in their referral just as they have been lying to the public and the press.”

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Taxpayers to Cover Andrew Cuomo’s Defense in Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Taxpayers will be left footing the bill to defend disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in his sexual harassment lawsuit.

Nearly a dozen women have accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, leading to his resignation in August 2021.

Cuomo was sued by a State Trooper last year, who alleges that he hit on her, kissed her, and “placed the palm of his hand on her belly button and slid it across her waist to her right hip.”

According to a report from the New York Post, “the former governor claimed the sex harassment accusations were made while he was governor — entitling him to a state-funded defense.”

A lawyer with the Attorney General, Andrew Amer, said they had denied the taxpayer-funded defense because “all of the conduct was to serve [Cuomo’s] own self-interest.”

“These are not allegations where the conduct occurred while they were off duty. These are work place allegations,” Cuomo’s lawyer argued.

On Friday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shlomo Hagler sided with Cuomo.

“This court grants the petition and requires that there be a defense,” Hagler said.

“[Cuomo’s] view is that everything he did was within the scope of his employment and he was just acting as the governor … when addressing trooper 1 in a friendly manner,” Hagler continued. “Did he go over the line? That is not clear cut.”

The judge said that since Cuomo has denied the allegations and claimed that he was acting appropriately as the governor, a taxpayer-funded defense can’t be denied.

“The allegations are quite disturbing,” Hagler said. “They should not be tolerated in the work place, if true.”

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Andrew Cuomo Personally Edited Report That Undercounted COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths And Downplayed Impact Of His March 25 Directive

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo personally edited a July 2020 Department of Health report that undercounted nursing home COVID deaths by thousands, the New York State Assembly said in a report Monday.

Cuomo ordered the Department of Health (DOH) to produce the report to combat criticism of his March 25 directive ordering New York nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients, the State Assembly Judiciary Committee said in its report summarizing findings from its eight-month impeachment investigation of the former Democratic governor. Officials knew as they drafted the report that approximately 10,000 nursing home residents had died from the virus at the time, but the final version of the report only disclosed approximately 6,500 deaths, a figure that reflected only the residents who were physically present at a nursing home at the time of their death, the report said.

“Throughout the drafting process, the former Governor reviewed and edited the draft DOH Report on multiple occasions, and made edits to strengthen the defense of the March 25 Directive,” the report stated.

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