New York lawmakers are pressing for an investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s alleged coverup of nursing home deaths early in the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the New York Post, the Cuomo administration, “froze” out of fear of the Trump administration rather than tell the public what was really going on:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state’s nursing home death toll from COVID-19 — telling them “we froze” out of fear that the true numbers would “be used against us” by federal prosecutors, The Post has learned.

The stunning admission of a coverup was made by secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa during a video conference call with state Democratic leaders in which she said the Cuomo administration had rebuffed a legislative request for the tally in August because “right around the same time, [then-President Donald Trump] turns this into a giant political football,” according to an audio recording of the two-hour-plus meeting.

“He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,” DeRosa said. “He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer.”

Cuomo is pushing back against calls for an investigation and removal of his emergency powers,  saying:

“You can’t use a subpoena or the threat of investigation to leverage a person,” Cuomo said in a briefing on Monday. “That’s a crime, it’s called abuse of process, it’s called extortion.”

Or a search for the truth. Either way, bullies really dislike it when people stand up to them.

Image Credit: Delta News Hub / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)