GOP Rep Announces Plan To File Criminal Complaint Against Cuomo Aide Over Nursing Home Deaths

Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) spoke out on Friday to announce plans to file a criminal complain against New York Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa after a report came out stating that she had admitted to hiding nursing home COVID-19 data so that the federal government wouldn’t find out how many people died.

“[N]ow we have Gov. Cuomo’s second in command, essentially, on a taped confession to fellow Democratic lawmakers admitting she committed criminal activity to cover up for what they were hiding from the federal officials that were responsible to get to the bottom of this, and make sure that,” Reed told Fox Business. “We learned what happened with the COVID-19-positive order that sent 15,000 [people] to their death that Cuomo issued back in March.”

“This, obviously, cannot go unaccounted for,” he added. ‘And that’s why we were arguing this in the committee yesterday, when we demanding that transparency and accountability be part of this COVID-19 package. But, most importantly, the days of Cuomo are going to be numbered in Albany here. But, most important, we need to start with this second in command.”

“I’m demanding — I’m going to be looking at filing a personal criminal complaint against this individual, today, in local law enforcement offices, as well as federal offices,” Reed continued. “Because she needs to be arrested today. [L]et’s get this second in command arrested, hopefully today, by filing this criminal complaint.”

This comes after DeRosa apologized to Democrat leaders for hiding the true nursing home coronavirus death toll, saying “we froze” out of fear that the true numbers would “be used against us.”

She said in a video conference that they 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.”

“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.”

She went on to say that Trump then “directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us…And basically, we froze.”

“Because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation,” DeRosa said. “That played a very large role into this.”

Instead of apologizing to the public, DeRosa apologized to Democrats for putting them in a difficult political position.

“So we do apologize,” she said. “I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.”