House COVID panel subpoenas Andrew Cuomo

Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup on Tuesday announced a subpoena for former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo demanding that he sit for a deposition to address his nursing home COVID-19 policies.

Cuomo in 2020 issued a mandate requiring the Empire State nursing homes admit untested or possibly contagious patients. In a statement announcing the subpoena, Wenstrup highlighted reporting that more than 15,000 people died in New York nursing homes and that Cuomo allegedly attempted to hide the number of deaths from the public.

"Your unwillingness to seriously cooperate with our requests and to negotiate a reasonable date to participate in a transcribed interview has unjustifiably delayed our investigation. This is unacceptable," Wenstrup said. 

"It is now clear that your strategy from the beginning has been to delay and undermine our investigation. You have repeatedly and consistently dismissed, deflected, or ignored all questions and requests from the Select Subcommittee related to your handling of nursing homes," he asserted. "Publicly, you and your spokesman have downplayed our investigation—characterizing it as a political attempt to weaponize people’s pain. In actuality, as elected officials, it is our obligation and responsibility to recognize people’s pain and to address the surrounding issues that led to or created their pain."

The Ohio Republican further highlighted his past attempts to secure Cuomo's voluntary cooperation in the investigation, highlighting that he provided the former governor with more than sixty days advance notice initially, but that repeated rescheduling and requests for accommodation from Cuomo had convinced the panel he did not intend to sit for an interview voluntarily.

Wenstrup scheduled the mandatory deposition for May 24.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.