ANDREW Cuomo’s aides were hiding Covid-19 related deaths in nursing homes as the New York governor was trying to secure a $4 million book deal, according to a report.
Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s top aide, attended video meetings with publishers and helped him edit early drafts of the book in which Cuomo proclaims himself the leader of the then hardest-hit state in the early months of the pandemic.
It was during this time when an upcoming Health Department report was going to disclose the actual number of nursing home deaths related to the coronavirus.
With DeRosa and other Cuomo aides expressing concern over the higher death toll, the number was removed from the final version of the report.
Cuomo has for months claimed he hid the actual number of nursing home deaths from the public to avoid blowback from the federal government at a time when Cuomo says the country lacked a leader, under then-President Trump.
However, the New York Times reports Cuomo was expecting to receive a book deal of at least $4 million, according to people close to the book bidding process.
The Times investigated Cuomo’s book deal with how it overlapped his senior aides’ move to remove the total death toll – which would have been the second sentence of the Health Department report.
Cuomo even had his staff look over the book, with top aide Stephanie Benton asking assistants in June and July to print out portions of the manuscript and deliver them to Cuomo at the governor’s mansion.
Benton’s June 27 request was the same day that DeRosa joined a teleconference with other advisers to discuss the Health Department report.
More to follow…
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