Lawmakers want Cuomo subpoenaed in COVID nursing home deaths investigation

NEW YORK - New York’s Republican Congressional delegation sent a letter Wednesday to the US Justice Department asking it serve subpoenas on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other state officials for records related to a "coverup" of nursing home patient deaths from COVID-19. 

The deaths in question occurred following a March 25 Department of Health directive for nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients.

A total of 12, 743 nursing home patients died from the virus in both hospitals and nursing homes as of Jan. 19. That number was released last week after Attorney General Letitia James issued a report that forced NYS Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to release the figures.

The number was far greater than the state's tally of 8,505 deaths at nursing homes. The DOH had previously only released the number of residents who died at their nursing homes.

All 20 members of the GOP delegations are calling for Zucker’s resignation accusing him of withholding information about the true scope of nursing home deaths from COVID-19.

State Sen. Jim Tedisco (R-Glenville) told the NY Post that Zucker was "complicit in the coverup" and of "distorting and holding back on the truth."

"That’s why he should resign. He’s failed the people miserably, more than he has failed us in the Legislature," Tedisco told The Post.

Also on Wednesday, a state judge ordered the DOH to release records about nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 saying the agency's failure to do so already was a "violation" of New York's open government law.

RELATED: NY may have undercounted COVID nursing home deaths by 50%

Albany County Acting Supreme Court Justice Kimberly O'Connor also ordered the Cuomo administrationto pay legal fees for The Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative-leaning, nonprofit think tank that filed suit demanding the release of the records last fall.

New York regularly releases the number of residents who died at individual nursing homes and assisted living homes after testing positive for COVID-19. But, unlike other states, it does not regularly give out that information for those residents who died at hospitals.

The Empire Center filed an Aug. 3 request for records about all long-term care residents who died of COVID-19.

Even though nursing homes have to file daily reports of all resident deaths, regardless of location, the Department of Health argued it needed months to compile records about long-term care residents who died at hospitals.

The judge ordered the Department of Health to release the information within five business days, and said the agency violated the state's Freedom of Information law by failing to provide a reasonable date to grant or deny the Empire Center's request.

"Its continued failure to provide petitioner a response, given the straightforward nature of the request, how the data is collected and maintained, and the fact that some of the requested data has already been made publicly available without personally identifying information, goes against FOIL’s broad standard of open and transparent government and is a violation of the statute," O'Connor said.

The Department of Health has argued it’s flooded with records requests during a time marked by pandemic, and that it is taking months to verify that nursing homes are accurately reporting the number of deaths of residents at hospitals.

"With the preliminary audit complete, we were already in the process of responding to the their FOIL request, and updating DOH’s website with publicly available information," Department of Health spokesperson Gary Holmes said in a statement.

The Associated Press is still awaiting the results of multiple records requests from DOH filed last spring, including for data about the number of COVID-19 positive residents admitted or readmitted from hospitals.

With the Associated Press