The congressional panel investigating the Covid-19 pandemic has released evidence suggesting that former New York governor Andrew Cuomo may have attempted to tamper with a witness during the panel’s probe into the Cuomo administration’s directive ordering Covid-19 patients into nursing homes.
The select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic revealed Wednesday that Cuomo, a Democrat, contacted one of his former aides, Dr. Jim Malatras, on three occasions soon after major developments in the subcommittee’s investigation. One of those contacts, an hour-long phone call, took place leading up to Cuomo’s recent public testimony and made Malatras “uncomfortable” when his old boss discussed the nursing home situation.
In May 2023, the subcommittee held its first hearing on the nursing home investigation. Less than 24 hours later, Cuomo texted Malatras for the first time since 2021. Malatras did not respond. Cuomo’s text was a lengthy lamentation on the difficulties of working in politics and the pain Cuomo might have caused him.
Then, Cuomo texted Malatras to check in on February 18, less than 48 hours after the subcommittee publicly announced its intention to have the ex-Cuomo aide testify. Malatras also did not respond to the text.
Subsequently, Cuomo called Malatras on July 15, the day his public hearing date was decided, to discuss the nursing home investigation.
The communications between Cuomo and Malatras were featured in a letter from the subcommittee to Malatras earlier this month and a response letter his attorney sent to the subcommittee.
“I only listened and did not respond to his discussion on nursing homes, because I was uncomfortable having to potentially contradict or disagree with governor Cuomo on the call, or somehow prejudicing the upcoming Select Subcommittee hearing by discussing it at all,” Malatras said in response to one of the panel’s questions.
Congressional investigators added the communications to the panel’s memo on its findings from the nursing home probe. The memo, released ahead of Cuomo’s public testimony, summarized the subcommittee’s findings based on over 50 hours of testimony and hundreds of thousands of documents.
“The evidence in this Memo supports the finding that former Governor Andrew Cuomo acted in a manner consistent with an attempt to inappropriately influence the testimony of a witness and obstruct the Select Subcommittee’s investigation,” the subcommittee said in an addendum with the communications between Cuomo and Malatras.
The subcommittee’s memo prompted Cuomo’s attorney to issue legal threats to the subcommittee and its staff. Rita Glavin, Cuomo’s attorney, accused the subcommittee’s Republican staff of misinterpreting his February text to Malatras, and said there was “nothing nefarious” to it.
Malatras said he interpreted the text as a “signal” that Cuomo knew about his upcoming testimony.
Malatras is the only ex-Cuomo administration official to testify that Cuomo personally edited his administration’s report in July 2020, that deliberately undercounted New York’s total nursing home deaths. Emails subsequently reported by the New York Times appear to corroborate Malatras’s testimony, and contradict Cuomo’s assertions he had no involvement in the nursing home report.
The Cuomo administration’s report discounted the total number of nursing home deaths by failing to include the out-of-facility deaths for vulnerable patients who became infected with Covid-19 when they were in nursing home care.
Cuomo denied playing a role in the report during closed door testimony in June before the subcommittee. When he testified publicly earlier this month, Cuomo repeatedly abdicated responsibility and downplayed the report’s death total, while asserting that the out-of-facility death statistics were not accurate and his administration’s nursing home directive was not responsible for bringing the pandemic into long-term care facilities.
Along with multiple Democratic lawmakers, Cuomo often changed the subject to former president Donald Trump’s management of the pandemic and accused Republicans of simply parroting Trump’s talking points.
“This attempt to miscast the governor’s communications with a longtime former aide is more of the same from this MAGA clown committee who to date have a documented history of misrepresenting the truth and lying to the press,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
Azzopardi also asserted that it was not inappropriate for Cuomo to reach out to Malatras after his former aide’s testimony. Malatras testified to the subcommittee behind closed doors in May. He was one of many former high-ranking Cuomo aides to testify for the panel’s investigation.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cuomo received effusive praise from Democrats and their media allies for how he handled the crisis, despite the nursing home directive. His name was even floated in presidential discussions as Democrats held their 2020 primary.
The nursing home scandal, along with highly-publicized allegations of sexual harassment, sank Cuomo’s political career in August 2021, when he resigned from his post. Cuomo has consistently denied the sexual-harassment allegations, and none of the criminal investigations into them resulted in charges.