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Press Release Published: Dec 11, 2023

Wenstrup & Malliotakis: Governor Cuomo’s Top Aid Denies Involvement in COVID-19 Nursing Home Death Cover-Up

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WASHINGTON — Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) are pressing former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s top aid, Melissa DeRosa, for answers following recent claims that she was not involved in New York’s deadly COVID-19 nursing home directive. Less than seven hours after the Select Subcommittee requested Ms. DeRosa sit for a transcribed interview and provide documents related to New York’s COVID-19 nursing home order, her attorney claimed that Ms. DeRosa does not have any responsive documents nor subject matter expertise to contribute to the Select Subcommittee’s inquiry. These seemingly false assertions contradict statements made by Ms. DeRosa in her new tell-all book and differ significantly from all publicly reported information about Ms. DeRosa’s role in the Cuomo administration during the pandemic.

“As you described in your book, you were ‘the most senior member of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s team leading the nation through a once-in-a-century pandemic, making life-or-death decisions, projecting our administration’s competence to an admiring world.’  You publicly discussed and defended the Cuomo Administration’s nursing home Order—arguing that it was consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) guidelines.  Of course, despite your statements, the Order was not consistent with federal guidance,” wrote Chairman Wenstrup and Rep. Malliotakis.

Chairman Wenstrup and Rep. Malliotakis will not allow Ms. DeRosa to obfuscate and deflect responsibility for her alleged efforts to aid former Governor Cuomo’s fatal directive and conceal the true nursing home mortality rate. Today’s letter reiterates the Select Subcommittee’s previous request for documents and invites Ms. DeRosa to testify under penalty of criminal prosecution if she was truly not involved in influencing or implementing these deadly policies.

“First, it is not your nor your attorney’s right to determine whether you can contribute to our inquiry, that rests solely with the Select Subcommittee. Second, we contest the factual basis of your assertions.” continued Chairman Wenstrup and Rep. Malliotakis. “You owe answers to the thousands of families who lost loved ones in New York nursing homes. Any assertion that you were not involved in issues regarding the Order grossly mischaracterizes publicly available information and your own representations. In fact, you were in a position to understand the Cuomo Administration’s policy regarding nursing homes from the very beginning,”

Read Chairman Wenstrup and Rep. Malliotakis’s letter to Melissa DeRosa here.

Read more about the Select Subcommittee’s COVID-19 nursing home investigation below:

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