NYT: Feds Are Investigating Whether Andrew Cuomo Broke the Law By Using State Resources To Give Priority, DeLuxe Covid Screening to "Specials," Such as His Family Members and Donors

Buried lede: Feds have concluded that Chris Cuomo is "special."

Well, we all kinda thought so.

Federal prosecutors have been looking into whether Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration granted special access to rapid coronavirus test results for the governor's family and other influential people, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

They're looking into that? Isn't that already determined to be a fact?

Shouldn't we be talking about which crimes to charge him with?

Investigators from the Eastern District of New York had been looking into the handling of data on nursing home deaths by Mr. Cuomo's office. More recently, their focus expanded, according to the people, to include questions surrounding a priority testing program that benefited Mr. Cuomo's close family members, including his brother, Chris Cuomo, in the early weeks of the pandemic.

Those who received special access to testing and fast results during that period also included Giorgio DeRosa, a top Albany lobbyist and the father of the governor's most senior aide, Melissa DeRosa, according to two people with knowledge of the tests who spoke to The New York Times.

Melissa DeRosa, of course, is the aide who ordered agencies to hide the deaths that Cuomo's order to pack the nursing homes with covid patients caused.

So much fucking corruption. And nepotism.

The governor's office has not disputed that the governor's family and others received priority access to testing in the pandemic’s early weeks.

But the special treatment for Mr. Cuomo’s family has lasted far longer than previously known, through at least last month, The Times found.

On April 3, the day before Easter, one of Mr. Cuomo's daughters, Mariah Kennedy Cuomo, and her boyfriend, Tellef Lundevall, were tested at a state-run site in Albany, N.Y., and the samples were labeled a priority -- "specials," as they were known inside the Health Department -- before being rushed for processing at the state’s Wadsworth Center laboratory nearby.

The samples were processed within hours, according to two people familiar with the events. Their reason for getting priority was personal: They were going to see the governor for the holiday.

The couple's preferential treatment underscored how a system meant to ensure fast test results for high-priority cases -- such as those involving possible outbreaks -- had been repeatedly used for Mr. Cuomo’s immediate family and other influential people.

The report notes that such testing is now widely and easily available -- which raises the question of why Cuomo's daughter and her dipshit boyfriend (one assumes) used precious state resources to avoid the slightest inconvenience.

Of course, the question answers itself.

Remember, the deluxe testing package included sending doctors to Chris Cuomo's home to get a sample.

Chris Cuomo and his family were tested several times in the pandemic's early phase by a high-ranking health official who traveled to their Long Island home to take samples, which were then rushed by the state police to the Wadsworth laboratory in Albany.

...

For those deemed "specials," staff members at Wadsworth were told to stay at the lab until the results could be processed, sometimes late into the night. Those who received this preferential treatment included the president of Regeneron, a pharmaceutical company based in Westchester County with longstanding ties to Mr. Cuomo. "Specials" often received their results by phone, within hours after giving their samples.

The "specials" program was intended to be used to rapidly test people who might have sparked an outbreak -- that is, the rapid test was supposed to be used to find out if someone who had, say, infected a whole wedding with covid. That was the reason for the speedy testing, to help medical authorities determine in a timely fashion if a quarantine was necessary.

Instead, Cuomo used it for his family and cronies.

As a convenience.

Health officials needed a way to identity positive cases quickly when necessary, isolate them and quarantine their contacts, the people said. The prioritization was mostly used in that manner, they added.

But health officials chafed at its use for testing those with ties to the governor.

Officials are barred by state law from using their position to obtain "privileges or exemptions" for themselves or others, or even trying to do so. An impeachment inquiry into Mr. Cuomo, run by the State Assembly, has also begun considering the access the governor’s family received to testing.

...

"It's not a private benefit," [Cuomo's lawyer lied.] "It's not anybody getting special treatment."

Right.

Fucking mobster goons.

posted by Ace at 12:10 PM

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