The Justice Department’s (DOJ) reported probe into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City, is drawing accusations of political interference.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., has launched an investigation into the former governor over his testimony last year concerning his nursing home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to multiple reports.
The move, which The Hill has reached out to confirm, comes after the Trump administration had bribery charges dropped against sitting Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent in the same race.
The apparent actions have raised questions over whether the administration is putting its thumb on the scale in the mayoral race.
“I think there’s a lot of reasons for an average voter to look at the system right now and say it’s not working, and this would just be one more example of that,” said Alix Fraser, the vice president of advocacy for the cross-partisan group Issue One, which works to educate and advocate on issues concerning U.S. democracy, elections and government.
The main issue apparently drawing DOJ scrutiny is far from new.
Cuomo, in his last year as governor in 2021, faced allegations that he intentionally underreported the number of deaths in nursing homes during the pandemic.
Cuomo denied wrongdoing and argued that he and other governors were simply following federal guidance. But New York Attorney General Letitia James found his administration significantly miscounted the number of nursing home deaths. A Biden-era DOJ inspector general report later concluded that Cuomo’s policies were similar to that of other states, and that he and other Democratic governors’ states were politically targeted for investigations.
But a Republican-led report from a House subcommittee investigating the U.S. handling of the pandemic found in September that Cuomo committed “wrongdoing”, and Cuomo testified before the committee, defending his record.
The committee referred Cuomo to the DOJ for prosecution, accusing him of lying to the panel about his policies. Another GOP-led House panel sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi last month, reupping the request for Cuomo to be prosecuted.
Multiple outlets reported that a probe started a month ago, under the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., led at the time by Ed Martin.
Cuomo’s campaign quickly alleged the move was a clear example of political motivation.
“We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now? The answer is obvious: This is lawfare and election interference, plain and simple—something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against,” Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said.
He said Cuomo answered the committee’s questions to the best of his recollection, but from the beginning “this was all transparently political.”
The DOJ declined to comment on Cuomo’s accusation. The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
Experts said the investigation into Cuomo ahead of the primary next month comes off even more as questionable, given the DOJ’s ending of the case against Adams.
Several prosecutors resigned earlier this year rather than sign off on dropping the case against Adams after the DOJ argued that the case “improperly interfered” with Adams’s reelection campaign and his ability to conduct his duties as mayor. The department also argued that the indictment, filed in September, was handed up too close to the election.
The acting U.S. attorney who resigned instead of agreeing to move forward with dropping the Adams case alleged a quid pro quo occurred — the case was dropped and Adams agreed to work with the Trump administration on its policy priorities.
“Anyone who goes deeper in the story and says, ‘You gave one mayor and the city a pass, essentially because he was willing to support your agenda, and another one you’re going to go after,’ I think a lot of people will start to see the deeper story here,” Issue One’s Fraser said.
Meanwhile, the other mayoral candidates are trying to balance between criticizing the DOJ’s actions and arguing that Cuomo could be another mayor arguably under the Trump administration’s thumb.
State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, who has placed second in most polling of the race, argued in a statement that Cuomo’s career has been “defined by corruption and deceit” but that Trump can’t be trusted.
“While I believe New Yorkers should reject the disgraced ex-Governor at the ballot box, the Trump administration’s actions are dangerous,” he said.
“New Yorkers can’t afford four more years of a compromised Mayor kissing Trump’s ass,” said Comptroller Brad Lander on X.
Former state Assembly member Michael Blake told The Hill that the probe yields multiple reasons for concern, including Cuomo’s actions and the “weaponizing” from Trump.
“It’s impossible not to see the incredible irony here,” he said, pointing to the case being dropped against Adams as the mayor pledges his support while a case is initiated against Cuomo.
“Is Donald Trump effectively trying to hold power over the head of New York City through investigations?” he added.
With the primary election on June 24, analysts said the probe could be politically helpful to Cuomo’s chances of clinching the nomination.
“What could be better for anyone running for public office in New York City in 2025 than to be attacked by Donald Trump? I think that is a gift to Andrew Cuomo in this mayoral race, and he’s already using it in his political promotion,” said Ester Fuchs, a professor of political science at Columbia University who previously served as an adviser for former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Cuomo released an ad on Wednesday going after the Trump administration, tying his situation to prosecutions that the DOJ has pursued against other liberal-leaning politicians, like James and Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.).
“If Donald Trump doesn’t want Andrew Cuomo as mayor, you do,” the ad states.
Fuchs said the other candidates are spinning the best they can, but political motivation in the investigation is “clear.”
Boris Heersink, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University, said the legitimacy of the election itself likely won’t be in doubt, as Cuomo was the favorite before news of the probe broke and appears likely to win unless the race radically changes in the next month.
But he expressed concern about a wider consequence in the public reaction to instances of allegations of wrongdoing against politicians and accusations of political motivation, which was commonplace for Trump to argue as he faced multiple indictments during the 2024 presidential election.
“If the sort of standard image that we get as voters is that any time a politician is prosecuted, they say this is political, and if you are of the same partisan persuasion as that politician, you believe that… that becomes real messy,” Heersink said.
If voters get used to these accusations being made, then distinguishing between actual instances of wrongdoing and those of politically motivated prosecutions becomes difficult, he said.
“It is a tricky situation to have this happen so often, where I think a lot of voters will just become numb to the entire concept of it,” Heersink said. “Once that happens, you also no longer can distinguish between the cases where someone actually committed crimes and should be held accountable and someone is using the justice system to punish political opponents.”
“And you get this sense that everybody has issues, that everybody is corrupt, that everybody’s wrong, that everybody has these massive things, that’s also not great,” he said.
