Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to “inappropriately influence” a top aide’s testimony during a congressional investigation into his administration’s disastrous mandate that forced COVID-19 patients into nursing homes, a bombshell new House document claimed.
Witness Jim Malatras said the 66-year-old ex-governor made him “uncomfortable” by calling and texting him as the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic probed the March 25, 2020 “must admit” order for nursing homes, according to new evidence in a subcommittee staff memo exclusively obtained by The Post.
The House COVID panel revealed in a memo earlier this month that Cuomo had reached out to Malatras to “check in” at least once during the course of their investigation.
But in an addendum to that memo released Wednesday, text messages and a letter from Malatras show Cuomo reached out to his ex-aide three times since early 2021 — and always “within 48 hours of the Select Subcommittee taking a specific action in its nursing home investigation.
“This includes one action that was not public and only known by Mr. Cuomo and his counsel,” the addendum states. “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 Post has reached out to Cuomo’s spokesman and attorney for comment.
Malatras, a former director of state operations and chancellor of the State University of New York system, was the only former member of Cuomo’s office to confirm to the COVID committee that the former governor “edited” a notorious New York Department of Health report that deflated the true nursing home death count due to the order.
Malatras resigned in December 2021 and hadn’t heard from the former governor — despite having been sacked for smearing a woman who accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct — until one day after the House subcommittee held its first hearing on the New York nursing home fiasco.
“Hello Jim, Andrew Cuomo here. It’s been a long time. I just want you to know I think about you often. I am very sorry for the pain you went through,” reads the May 18, 2023, text message.
“I am sorry that I was the lightning rod that hurt you,” Cuomo went on. “I always knew politics was a nasty business but the level surprised even me.”
“I hear you are doing well and if there’s anything I can ever do to help you of course I will. I know it hurts,” he added, “getting knocked on your ass hurts but it’s the getting up that makes the man.”
Nine months later, Cuomo again texted Malatras; this time, two days after the subcommittee invited the governor’s former aide to testify.
“Hello Jim, now that the dust has settled, and the truth is being revealed, I wanted to check in with you and see how you are doing,” the ex-governor wrote in a Feb. 18, 2024, message. “I am sure that you will do well because quality and talent always wins in the end. All the best, Andrew.”
In follow-up letter sent last week to the COVID panel, Malatras characterized the second text as “a type of flare — or signal — alerting me that he was aware that the House Select Subcommittee had requested that I testify on issues related to the administration’s handling of the Covid-19 response.”
Once the subcommittee confirmed a public hearing with the former governor on July 15, Cuomo also called Malatras and began discussing the nursing home mandate.
“As part of the conversation he spoke about nursing homes, specifically describing how the story in New York was much better than I even knew it to be and mentioned several facts and datapoints to demonstrate his point,” Malatras said in his follow-up letter.
“I interpreted the call as an effort to make me aware of the positive information about which he intended to testify,” he wrote. “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.”
At the time, only Cuomo and his lawyers were aware that a public hearing was scheduled for Sept. 10.
The COVID panel also claimed that Cuomo’s lawyer, Rita Glavin, seemingly threatened two attorneys on the majority’s staff with a potential disbarment complaint as they probed the apparent interference with Malatras as a witness.
Glavin brought up bar rules for states they were licensed in and referenced former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s disbarment earlier this summer, the panel’s addendum and contemporaneous reporting in the Washington Post show.
The move was “not the first time that Ms. Glavin has resorted to such intimidation tactics on Select Subcommittee staff,” according to the memo addendum.
In a Sept. 9 email to the subcommittee, Glavin said there was “nothing nefarious” about Cuomo’s messages and that any “suggestions” the former governor “may have been attempting [to] violate the law are entirely unsupported.”
She further accused the majority staff memo of “deliberately” trying to mislead the public by noting that Malatras never explicitly said “he understood the text message to be an effort to improperly influence him or obstruct this investigation.”
Cuomo in his June transcribed interview with the House COVID panel denied any involvement in the July 6, 2020, DOH report that removed out-of-facility deaths from the final fatality count.
However, new emails reported by the New York Times further substantiate Malatras’ testimony about the former governor’s involvement.
A former senior staff member to the governor, Farah Kennedy, in a June 23, 2020, email wrote: “Governor’s edits are attached for your review.”
At least four Cuomo aides also told House COVID investigators that another email from the governor’s secretary, Stephanie Bento — that warned the nursing home mandate was “going to be the great debacle in the history books” — was likely dictated by the governor himself.
In his public hearing earlier this month, Cuomo admitted that there was a degree of involvement by his office.
“I’m sure the Executive Chamber was involved,” Cuomo told House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) during a line of questioning.
“If former Governor Cuomo was involved in the drafting of the July 6 Report, it would directly contradict his testimony before the Select Subcommittee and may constitute a false statement,” the addendum notes.
Cuomo wasn’t sworn in under oath for his closed-door testimony this year, but was informed he could face criminal prosecution if he knowingly made false statements, his interview transcript shows.
He did testify under oath before the House select subcommittee during his public hearing earlier this month.
Malatras testified in a May 2024 transcribed interview that top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa made the final decision to exclude out-of-facility deaths — and that both she and Cuomo reviewed and edited the July 2020 DOH report, which low-balled the COVID fatalities by around 46%.
Then-New York health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker released the full internal data in January 2021, six months after the non-peer-reviewed study cooked up by Cuomo’s office came out, shifting the death count from 8,711 to 12,743.
Cuomo also denied in his June transcribed interview and September public hearing that he was aware or involved in the drafting of the nursing home order when it was issued — though ex-deputy health commissioner Bradley Hutton testifying that the governor’s office had “absolutely” signed off on the order.
As a result, 9,000 recovering COVID patients were admitted or re-admitted in senior care facilities statewide, without a requirement to test whether they were positive for the virus.
More than 15,000 New Yorkers from senior care facilities died during the pandemic.
“The Select Subcommittee is continuing its thorough and fact driven investigation. Accordingly, the Select Subcommittee is evaluating all avenues at its disposal to hold former Governor Cuomo accountable,” the memo addendum states.
The subcommittee this month subpoenaed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for additional records that are still being withheld, which based on descriptions in email correspondence between Cuomo aides would also “provide evidence that supports Dr. Malatras’ testimony.”
