The FBI and Brooklyn federal prosecutors are circling closer to Gov. Andrew Cuomo as they probe if he and his administration provided false data to minimize nursing home resident deaths from COVID-19, sources told The Post Friday night.
Investigators have contacted lawyers for Cuomo’s aides, interviewed senior state Health Department officials and subpoenaed the governor’s office for documents relating to the alleged data coverup, the sources said.
The New York Times first reported the probe earlier Friday, citing four unnamed sources with knowledge of the investigation.
Health officials are being grilled about nursing home-related COVID-19 case and death data the state submitted last year to the Justice Department, sources told The Post.
The probe, which is being overseen by the Eastern District of New York, opened with interviews of senior members of Cuomo’s coronavirus task force but now is looking at Cuomo and his most senior aides as well.
The state Health Department’s July report to the Justice Department had listed only the nursing home residents who died from the virus while still in their nursing home beds — minimizing the death toll by excluding those who died after being taken to hospitals.
His administration waited eight more months before coughing up the true totals; as The Post exclusively reported last month, top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa was caught on tape admitting the book-cooking to prevent then-president Donald Trump “turn[ing] this into a giant political football.”