Cuomo may be guilty of 'obstruction of justice,' must be investigated: Rep. Lee Zeldin

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Zeldin: Cuomo conduct over nursing home demands investigation

Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., tells 'America Reports' why he's calling for an investigation into Andrew Cuomo's 'cover-up' on nursing home deaths in the state.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration should be investigated over possible obstruction of justice in relation to its handling of information about the death toll in nursing homes during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Rep. Lee Zeldin, R.N.Y., told "America Reports" Friday. 

The New York Post reported late Thursday that Cuomo's secretary, Melissa DeRosa, admitted to state Democratic lawmakers that the administration withheld the data out of fear it could "be used against us" by the Trump administration's Justice Department.

Last month, the New York state attorney general's office released a report finding that the Cuomo administration dramatically undercounted nursing home deaths.

REP. LEE ZELDIN: "I just want to say that [Fox News senior meteorologist] Janice Dean has done a fantastic job for many months, going back to last spring and summer, to bring this issue to light ... AP reported that over 9,000 infected patients were placed with healthy nursing home residents, so as a result of the deaths that came in the weeks and the months following this late March policy, this mandate, there were a lot of requests for information, for data, for numbers on nursing home deaths and more, and then a cover-up started. 

There were requests from the feds to the state for information on it, and the state wasn't providing ... I believe, and my colleagues in the New York congressional delegation believe and many others as well, that there should be a an investigation into this ... There is an admission of what could be obstruction of justice ...

CUOMO AIDE TELLS NY DEMOCRATS ADMINISTRATION HID NURSING HOME DATA TO KEEP IT FROM TRUMP DOJ: REPORT

The investigation is what you need to do to determine who specifically should be held accountable from the criminal justice standpoint. Obstruction of justice seems to be admitted in what the New York Post was reporting late yesterday ... There are thousands of New York seniors who passed away as a result of this policy, and you can't look at this as data or numbers. It's families like Janice's and so many others where they lost a father or a mother or grandmother or grandfather and aunt and uncle and they're demanding accountability ...

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There are a lot of Democratic state legislators who are outraged over what happened, because regardless of any type of relationship they might have with the governor and his office of their same party, it's their duty to represent their constituents ... They don't want to be part of a cover-up ...

Zeldin also discussed former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial and the push to re-open schools nationwide.

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ZELDIN: I have ninth-graders at home, twin girls. And I see the consequences for them and their peers for having to do all of this remote learning. The mental impact of it, the emotional impact ... And not just for the social standpoint of being around, not just the friends and their teachers, but most importantly to learn. It's much better to be learning inside of the classroom ... It has to happen right now ... It should be next week.

[Trump's lawyers are] doing a great job today and they are pointing out some very important points ... The hypocrisy is limitless ... You can't just state that when the president said to fight like hell that you can't even consider the possibility that it was a metaphor."