John Daukas, who served as US Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, explained on Monday why he believes New York Governor Andrew Cuomo should be concerned about a federal investigation into the alleged count insufficient number of deaths in nursing homes in the pandemic COVID-19.
“On March 25, the governor issued his order demanding that nursing homes accept people who might be infected, still infected with COVID, and something that often overlooked, the order prohibited health facilities from testing these people to determine whether they had COVID for those people were put back in a very vulnerable population, “Daukas told” Fox & Friends “on Monday.
“In the summer, New York had by far the highest death rate in the country, over 32,000 deaths, double the deaths of any other state,” he continued.
“But the governor was saying that deaths in nursing homes were very low and that didn’t seem right to us in the Justice Department, so we asked for information about state-run health homes, which my group, the civil rights division, has. jurisdiction over and New York provided data for us that showed that they had underestimated the deaths in these nursing homes by a third, “added Daukas.
Cuomo found himself at the center of a federal investigation into whether his government was trying to hide the true number of victims of the pandemic.
The New York Post reported earlier this month that Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s top aide, told lawmakers that the government withheld the figures for fear that they would be “used against us”.
In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Daukas wrote that DeRosa’s reported admissions were not “merely negligent, but intentional and perhaps criminal”.
Daukas said several federal laws could be enforced, noting that the Cuomo government is accusing him of making false statements to the federal government and of trying to prevent an investigation.
“Even though it cannot be proved that the Cuomo administration intentionally provided false information to Justice and the (Medicare and Medicaid Service Centers), New York’s deliberate failure to provide information can constitute a criminal offense – especially if the intention was to prevent a federal investigation – which, after all, is exactly what DeRosa said the government did, “wrote Daukas.
On Monday, Daukas told presenter Steve Doocy that after the Justice Department learned that deaths in nursing homes were underestimated, “we went to our sister division, the Justice Department’s Civil Division, who asked for the same information to over 600 private nurses’ homes in New York State and New York stood as a stone barrier and produced nothing for the rest of the year, perhaps expecting a change in management.
Daukas appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Monday with Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean, who lost his elderly in-laws to COVID-19. Dean said he believed Cuomo or his government was behind the decision to allow infected patients to return to nursing homes.
She told Fox News in August that her husband’s father, who was in a nursing home and rehabilitation center, died the same day that she and her husband found out he was ill.
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Dean noted that her husband’s mother “contracted the coronavirus in her nursing home and was transported to the hospital and died in the hospital”. Her mother-in-law died on April 14, about two weeks after her father-in-law died of the new coronavirus.
On Monday, an emotional Dean told Doocy that she is “grateful” to Daukas and former Attorney General William Barr “for opening this investigation”. She referred to Barr and Daukas as “brave people”, saying that if it weren’t for their actions, she would not “believe there would be an investigation into Cuomo”.
“John Daukas is a hero and today’s report in the Wall Street Journal is incredible,” said Dean. “It is incredible for all of us, all families that want justice”.
Doocy asked Dean, “How will justice be for your family?”
“I want the whole truth and nothing but the truth and I think we are following this path,” she replied.
She stressed that because of Daukas and the Justice Department, she believes her family will get answers, adding that she hopes the “Biden Justice Department” will continue the effort.
Doocy asked Daukus if he feels “confident that we will know the truth and that Janice’s family will have justice?”
“Yes,” he replied. “This is something that hurts so many different people that we really need to get to the bottom of it.”
“It is not a political issue. It is a matter of justice,” he continued.
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A spokesman for Cuomo did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment.
Bradford Betz of Fox News contributed to this report.