LANSING, MI – Thanks to the efforts of new Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido, Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer could be facing criminal charges for her role in forcing Michigan nursing homes to accept patients with COVID-19.
Lucido’s efforts on behalf of Michigan nursing home residents affected by COVID-19 began in 2020, when Lucido was a Republican State Senator.
In April of 2020, Governor Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-84, which declared, in part:
“A nursing home with a census below 80% must create a unit dedicated to the care of COVID-19-affected residents (“dedicated unit”) and must provide appropriate PPE, as available, to direct-care employees who staff the dedicated unit.”
Macomb County Prosecutor says criminal charges possible against Governor Whitmer over nursing home deaths https://t.co/FtO6oi9tK2
— Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 9, 2021
Noting that nursing homes are not equipped in the same manner as hospitals, then-Senator Lucido called for a state investigation into the requirement that nursing homes set aside room for COVID-19-infected patients.
Lucido stated that the requirements were:
“exposing and endangering this vulnerable population and their caregivers to the very virus from which we had hoped to protect them.”
He went on to say:
“I believe that this reckless and negligent policy, which was instituted despite the written opposition of the Health Care Association of Michigan, has resulted in the illness and death of many of Michigan’s elderly and infirm residents, who otherwise would have been (protected) from exposure to the COVID-19 virus.”
BREAKING.🚨
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is on the hot seat for her mishandling of the coronavirus.🔻https://t.co/EwQXsuqmb9
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) March 9, 2021
Unfortunately, Lucido’s May 2020 requests for investigation by both U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel resulted in no action.
Still, Senator Lucido persevered in his efforts to combat the requirements of placing COVID-positive patients in nursing homes.
In July 2020, Lucido sponsored Senate Bill 956, which would have prohibited transferring ill COVID-positive patients into nursing homes and long-term care facilities without oversight and evaluation from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services with regards to the facility’s ability to provide separate and safe care.
Unfortunately, Governor Whitmer vetoed the bill.
In August 2020, Lucido praised the U.S. Department of Justice for their efforts in requesting COVID-19 data from Whitmer’s administration, noting that that the current statistics carried dire news.
He said in a statement:
“Today, 2,083 nursing home residents and 21 staff are dead from COVID-19, which is over 32% of all COVID-19 deaths in our state.
“I remain disappointed and saddened that the governor vetoed my bill that would have prohibited the transfer of people who have COVID-19 into nursing homes and renew my call to pass a veto override.”
Prosecutor: Gretchen Whitmer could face criminal charges https://t.co/UnCXO8fO42
— WND News (@worldnetdaily) March 9, 2021
Later in the fall of 2020, Lucido was elected to the position of Macomb County Prosecutor, and he took office at the beginning of 2021.
In that position, he is fulfilling a promise he made in June of 2020 to charge Whitmer if he became prosecutor.
At that time, he noted:
“What our governor has done is literally cold-blooded killed the most injured parties that are out there.”
According to Breitbart, when he was asked if he would address the situation further if he was elected prosecutor, Lucido responded:
“Is this an intentional act that has been going on and perpetrated for negligence of death, meaning, governor, you are the only one to stop your own order. The legislature— you took away our control and said you have full power.”
He continued:
“You’re damn right I’d be looking at this real carefully and saying, ‘What medical data and expert did you rely on?’”
In February of 2021, Lucido asked his fellow prosecutors to form a Blue Ribbon panel in order to investigate Whitmer’s involvement in nursing home deaths, but they declined, referring him to federal authorities or the state attorney general, which of course represented dead ends for Lucido in 2020.
Despite lack of help from other prosecutors, Lucido has proceeded in his efforts and is working on building a case against Whitmer.
According to WXYZ News, his possible charges against the Michigan governor include willful neglect of duty and reckless endangerment.
Lucido noted to WXYZ News:
“If we find there’s been willful neglect of office, if we find there’s been reckless endangerment of a person’s life by bringing them in [to the nursing home] then we would move forward with charges against the Governor.
“Of course, we would. Nobody’s above the law in this state.”
Since HIPAA laws prevent him from obtaining information on the circumstances surrounding the deaths of nursing home residents, Lucido has requested that loved ones of Macomb County residents who died make inquiries and come forward with information, and consider filing a wrongful death complaint.
The new Macomb County Prosecutor is going after Whitmer like a pitbull – he wants her criminally charged #LockHerUp https://t.co/H0cc7XhPXa
— Wayne Dupree Media, LLC (@WayneDupreeShow) March 9, 2021
As for Whitmer, the governor has responded by calling Lucido’s statements “shameful political attacks based in neither fact nor reality.”
Whitmer added:
“Even his former colleague, Republican Sen. Ed McBroom, has said they ‘have not seen any evidence or testimony that says that a nursing home was forced to take someone against their will.’”
She concluded:
“Michiganders are tired of these petty partisan games, and we won’t be distracted by them either.”
Regarding the matter of partisan politics, Lucido told WXYZ News:
“This is not political, everyone.
“This is about people who passed away at the behest of a policy that was created by our governor.”
Recent state data, according to The Center Square, show that 5,537 residents in long-term care facilities in Michigan have died from COVID-19, and 69 staff members have also died. These deaths represent 36% of Michigan’s COVID-19 deaths.
Former Police Chief: It’s time to charge Cuomo in the nursing home deaths of thousands of elderly Americans
The following article contains editorial content written by a retired Chief of Police and current staff writer for Law Enforcement Today.
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ALBANY, NY- The “bloom” is coming off the rose for New York’s Emmy Award winning governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo, a darling of far-left media and held up as a success story by the ever wrong Dr. Anthony Fauci finds himself in a pickle after the New York Post obtained a recording of a video conference where a Cuomo aide, Melissa De Rosa admits the administration hid nursing home data to keep it from the feds.
Now, people are calling for accountability – and rightfully so.
The Post in its February 11 edition reported that DeRosa privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers in the Empire State for withholding the real death toll from nursing homes relative to COVID-19.
She told them the administration “froze” out of fear that the real numbers would “be used against us” by federal prosecutors.
DeRosa, secretary to Cuomo said the administration turned down a legislative request for the data back in August, saying that “right around the same time, [then-President Trump] turns this into a giant political football,” an audio recording of the two-hour-plus meeting revealed.
“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.”
Trump allegedly also, DeRosa said, “directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us.”
“And basically, we froze,” DeRosa said on the call.
DeRosa continued, claiming that the administration was concerned that what would end up being given to the Department of Justice, or the legislature would be used against them and was concerned about some type of investigation.
“That played a very large role in this,” DeRosa added.
Let’s go back to the beginning of this pandemic. Cuomo was on television every day, propped up by his muscle-headed brother Chris “Fredo” Cuomo on CNN.
While people died in nursing homes, Cuomo was yukking it up on CNN with his brother-YouTube screenclip
The two brothers famously had a good old time joking about the size of the governor’s nose as New Yorkers lay dying of COVID. However, the governor tried to use a convenient scapegoat for his own shortfalls—President Trump.
Of course, while Cuomo was allowing people to die in nursing homes, he was actually writing a book about the “stellar” job he was doing on fighting the coronavirus. You cannot make it up.
Cuomo complained daily about a lack of PPE’s, a lack of hospital beds, a lack of ventilators…vastly overplaying the myth that the federal government was to blame. In fact, the administration built through the Army Corps of Engineers a temporary hospital at the Javits Convention Center that was barely used.
Javits Center in NYC converted to field hospita-YouTube screenclipl
In addition, the naval hospital ship, the Comfort was sent to New York harbor to help with an anticipated overflow in New York City emergency rooms, put in place to accept “regular” patients to increase capacity in city hospitals for an anticipated influx of COVID patients.
The hospital ship went virtually unused, as did the Javits Center.
Hospital ship Comfort arrives New York Harbor-YouTube screenclip
Meanwhile, yet another scandal was unfolding. On March 25, 2020, Cuomo issued an order that required nursing homes to admit patients who were either suspected or who had tested positive for COVID-19, according to Business Insider.
Clearly Cuomo’s office knew something was amiss. According to Fox News in May, Cuomo’s order was erased from the state health department’s website, despite the fact that the order, which had already caused thousands of nursing home deaths, remained in effect, according to Cuomo’s office.
A web archive showed that the deletion on the health department’s page occurred sometime after May 5, which was around the same time that the focus on New York’s nursing home fatalities increased.
According to a copy of the page, which was saved on the Internet archive Wayback Machine, Cuomo’s order specifically stated:
“No resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the NH [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs [Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
There was apparently a lot of confusion in the Cuomo administration about the nursing home situation. Despite Cuomo issuing a new directive on May 10 which said hospitals couldn’t send patients back to nursing home in the state unless they had a negative COVID test, Cuomo’s senior communications director told Fox News that was incorrect.
“He didn’t reverse or rescind anything,” said Peter Ajemian.
“The order is still in effect. He did add a directive, this one directed at hospitals, saying they must test patients and the patients must be negative before being sent back to a nursing home. And he is requiring nursing homes to test staff twice a week.”
Cuomo, as he has done since the beginning of the campaign refused to accept responsibility for the order, instead directing blame toward the Trump administration.
“New York followed the president’s agencies’ guidance,” Cuomo said during a press conference. “…What New York did was follow what the Republican Administration [emphasis added] said to do.”
His next statement is laughable, after he just blamed the “Republican Administration.”
“That’s not my attempt to politicize it. It’s my attempt to depoliticize it. So don’t criticize the state for following the president’s policy.”
Because in the one year COVID has been wreaking havoc in the country, Cuomo continues to shun responsibility.
In May, over 5,800 people had already died in New York nursing homes and adult care facilities. That toll would go much, much higher.
After DeRosa’s admission, one would think that the administration would have had some sense of concern for the families of those who died. For Cuomo and his administration, that would be asking way too much.
Instead of apologizing to those families, DeRosa was more concerned about smoothing things over with fellow Democrats.
“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.”
You see, it’s always about politics. Who gives a crap about the people who died needlessly, alone without their families? And what of those grieving families, left behind without the opportunity to say goodbye?
That mea culpa, however, went unappreciated by Cuomo’s own caucus.
Democrats across the state rejected DeRosa’s “apology”, with Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) rejecting DeRosa’s “remorse.”
“I don’t have enough time today to explain all the reasons why I don’t give that any credit at all.”
Yet another Assemblyman, Ron Kim (D-Queens) who was on the call told the Post on Thursday that DeRosa’s remarks appeared:
“…like they admitted that they were trying to doge having any incriminating evidence that might put the administration or the [Health Department] in further trouble with the Department of Justice.”
“That’s how I understand their reasoning of why they were unable to share, in real time, the data,” Kim said. “They had to first make sure that the state was protected against federal investigation.”
The bombshell this week follows on the heels of a report released last month by Attorney General Letitia James, which showed that nursing home deaths were underestimated by some 50 percent.
Health Commissioner Howard Zucker released the figures showing 12.743 deaths as of Jan. 19. By this past Wednesday, that number was 13,297, 15,049 when counting assisted living/adult day care facilities.
Just a day earlier on Jan. 18, the number was only 8,711.
After James’ report was released, Mr. Compassion Cuomo held a news conference, during which he showed just how little concern he had for the dead and their families, basically dismissing where the nursing home fatalities actually took place.
“Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died,” he said.
However not so surprisingly, DeRosa said it appears that the DOJ, now under a Democrat Joe Biden, was no longer looking at New York’s nursing home deaths. If that is true, that is an absolute outrage. According to DeRosa:
“All signs point to they are not looking at this, they’ve dropped it.”
Unbelievable.
One man who thought Cuomo was doing a “great” job is Dr. Anthony Fauci, clearly one of the most incompetent “experts” there is, who has been wrong about everything.
Yet he is controlling everything going on with the country’s response to COVID-19. Here is Fauci pointing to New York’s “success.”
Of course, as happens with all things “swampy,” there is a possible reason behind the DOJ’s sudden disinterest in the nursing home deaths.
The New York Post reported Saturday that the US Attorney for the Southern District, Audrey Strauss, is the mother-in-law of none other than Melissa DeRosa. How weird is that? This of course isn’t doing anything to lower the temperature.
Former Gov. George Pataki called the cover-up “reprehensible.”
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY)—ironically a high school classmate of DeRosa—said:
“Governor Cuomo, the secretary to the governor, and his senior team must be prosecuted immediately—both by the Attorney General of New York State and the Department of Justice.”
“I have said from the beginning that this is more than a nursing home scandal, this is a massive corruption and cover-up scandal at the highest level of New York State government,” Stefanik said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the New York GOP, Nick Langworthy called for an investigation and discussions into possible impeachment.
The second most powerful person in state government and top aide to Governor Cuomo admitted on video to the premeditated and willful violation of state laws and what clearly amounts to federal obstruction of justice,’ he said in a statement.
“Andrew Cuomo has abused his power and destroyed the trust place in the office of governor. Prosecution and impeachment discussions must begin right away.”
Calls for Cuomo’s impeachment go all the way to last summer, when Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) said he should be impeached.
“I think Gov. Cuomo should be impeached…for the disastrous decision he made to send patients with coronavirus back to nursing homes,’ Paul said. “Virtually half his people who died were in nursing homes.”
Back in the New York legislature, Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R) said:
“Governor Cuomo and his administration must be investigated from top to bottom and he must be stripped of his emergency powers.”
One of Cuomo’s biggest critics has been Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, who lost both her in-laws to COVID while they were inside nursing homes, saying “people should go to jail” for the cover-up.
“This is the biggest bombshell we have had so far. We had a trickling in of the numbers. We knew the numbers were much bigger than the governor was admitting,” Dean said.
“Over 15,000 residents died from getting COVID in their nursing homes…and now the biggest bombshell coming from the New York Post that his secretary, Melissa DeRosa admitted that they covered it all up.”
The DeRosa phone call, clearly released by a Democrat, received thanks from Dean.
“I would like to thank whoever that Democratic lawmaker that was the leak yesterday that gave us that information because I believe all of them should go to jail,” she said.
All of this comes after Cuomo’s name was floated as a possible candidate for Biden’s administration as Attorney General. Given Cuomo’s history of being a deceitful scumbag, he would fit right in with Biden’s administration, home to DC swamp rats such as Susan Rice, John Kerry and others.
In fact, Cuomo has yet to address the scandal, either by holding a press conference or by issuing a statement. Instead, he was in Washington DC at swamp central, meeting with Joe Biden and other “leaders” at the White House. His office has refused requests from numerous media outlets for comment.
Andrew Cuomo epitomizes what is wrong with our political system. He is accountable to nobody, and as a Democrat in New York, answerable to nobody. If an election was held in New York tomorrow, Cuomo would probably win. Why? New York City, Buffalo, Albany and Rochester. Period.
People like Andrew Cuomo is why Trump won in 2016 and why he should have won in 2020. He is a textbook version of the swamp that President Trump exposed during his run for the presidency and in his four years in the White House.
Time was, politicians were responsible for their actions. No more. If Cuomo and those in his administration who were responsible for this abomination escape without punishment, it will be an indication that our country is hopelessly lost.
When people were fined and/or put in jail for busting Cuomo’s random, unscientific, overbearing executive orders while he was literally getting people killed, there must be accountability.
The voters of New York should demand it. Cuomo should either resign or steps taken to either recall him (if allowed under New York law and or constitution) or impeach him. He must also be criminally prosecuted for this criminal coverup.
Who knows, maybe he and Fredo can take their circus act on the road.
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