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Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Suffolk) is vowing to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes on “day one” if elected over Gov. Kathy Hochul this November.
“The special prosecutor should pursue justice for thousands of New York families who have lost their loved ones and should not give up that fight,” the GOP hopeful told the Post Wednesday.
“If a special prosecutor determines that no criminal statutes were violated then so be it so long as it’s a thorough investigation that seeks out the truth,” he added.
Such an investigation would focus on actions taken by ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the early months of the pandemic, including a controversial March 2020 directive that critics say contributed to the death toll among nursing home residents.
Zeldin said that he would look to a current or former district attorney to conduct the investigation, which he expected could take somewhere around six months or a year to complete.
The special prosecutor could expand the scope of the probe to include other controversial topics like a multimillion-dollar book deal on the pandemic that Cuomo inked before his political downfall, according to Zeldin.
“New Yorkers know cheap and craven politics when they see it and they generally don’t award it with votes,” Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said in a text.
The former governor resigned last year amid a long list of alleged wrongdoing that included a reported cover-up of data detailing the deaths of thous ands of seniors in hospitals, which his administration did not include in the official tally of nursing home deaths.
“The full number of COVID fatalities in New York has never been in dispute and craven attempts to further politicize this pandemic become more and more transparent each passing day,” Azzopardi told the Post last week.
A blockbuster January 2021 report by the office of State Attorney General Letitia James found in that the Cuomo administration roughly undercounted nursing home deaths by thousands of people.
Months later, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli stated in a report of his own that state health officials hid the data to boost Cuomo politically.
“It’s clear to many that wrongdoing took place. It’s clear that an investigation was launched and then it was ended without any public report,” Zeldin said.
Cuomo has denied wrongdoing and past probes of his handling of nursing homes by the Manhattan DA and federal officials did not lead to any criminal charges.
The Long Island Republican, who was endorsed by The Post’s Editorial Board weeks ago, is running in the Nov. 8 election against Hochul, who served as Cuomo’s lieutenant governor for two terms.
Hochul vowed months ago to conduct a broad investigation to the bottom of the state response to the pandemic, but she has yet to take any significant steps, such as appointing investigators, despite ongoing pressure from legislators and families of people who died of COVID-19.
“She’s slow-walking this investigation as a political move. She’s slowing the investigation because she was part of the administration. She was silent when Cuomo issued the order to put COVID patients in nursing homes. She was silent the whole time. We already don’t trust her,” Tracey Alvino, assistant director of Voices for Seniors – whose father, Daniel Alvino, died of COVID in West Islip Nursing Home – told The Post last week.
Albany Democrats have also kept a bipartisan bill establishing a nursing home investigation from moving forward in the legislative session that ended last month.
If Hochul ever launches a probe, Zeldin said he would consider continuing it – if elected – though he added that he would have to wait to see what progress might be made by the end of the year.
“All we know right now is that the investigation has just been getting delayed because the governor is purposely dragging her feet,” Zeldin added.
A spokeswoman for Hochul’s campaign declined to comment.
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