BUFFALO, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo's coronavirus task force is being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, according to a report Thursday by the Albany Times Union.
The report says the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York is leading the probe and is in its early stages.
The report comes on the same day the governor's office released a transcript of a February 10 Zoom conference call that included members of his administration as well as New York State legislators.
A Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday said Cuomo vowed to "destroy" him following criticism of the governor’s handling of COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes.
The governor used a Wednesday call with reporters to blast Assemblyman Ron Kim of Queens for being one of nine Democratic Assembly members to sign onto a Tuesday letter to the Assembly that sought support for a bill to possibly impeach the governor and remove his emergency powers, which are set to expire this spring.
Kim told The New York Times and CNN on Wednesday that the Democratic governor threatened to “destroy” the lawmaker in a private phone call.
Under fire over his management of the coronavirus’ lethal path through New York’s nursing homes, Cuomo on Monday insisted that the state didn’t cover up deaths. But he acknowledged that officials should have moved faster to release some information sought by lawmakers, the public and the press.
The Democrat said at a virtual news conference that deaths in nursing homes and hospitals were always "fully, publicly and accurately reported.”
2 On Your Side's Steve Brown was on that call with the governor and tried to get a question answered, but was not called on by the governor's staff.
Cuomo has seen his image as a pandemic-taming leader damaged by a series of disclosures involving nursing homes in recent weeks. He said he would propose reforms involving nursing homes and hospitals in the upcoming state budget.
The Governor's office also released a transcript of that virtual news conference Wednesday night, which you can read HERE.