The Justice Department criminal probe of Andrew Cuomo for supposedly committing perjury in testimony to Congress is just more garbage from a DOJ that has become hyper political and partisan under Donald Trump. Meant to hurt the frontrunning mayoral candidate weeks before the Democratic primary, it may actually help the former governor.
Remember, this is the same Trump DOJ that moved to end the prosecution against Eric Adams to avoid “improperly interfer[ing] with Mayor Adams’ campaign in the 2025 mayoral election.” However, that investigation had begun even before Adams was elected mayor four years ago.
The meritless Cuomo inquiry comes from a referral by openly partisan House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, who accused Cuomo of lying to his committee about the former governor’s handling of the COVID. That same referral was rejected last fall, but Trump’s new politicized officials, like Attorney General Pam Bondi, DOJ No. 3 Emil Bove and Trump’s first, failed pick for the U.S. attorney in D.C., Ed Martin, ignored departmental rules and acted on it.
Do we believe it’s possible that Cuomo may have made some or misrepresentations in his testimony? Sure. But perjury is a pretty high bar and this ain’t it. His handling of COVID will be judged by the voters of the city.
Let’s be real here: falsehoods before Congress obviously aren’t a matter of any importance to the Trump administration. Hell, flubbing the facts or outright lying at congressional hearings is practically a hobby for high-level Trump officials at this point. Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. not only lied openly during his confirmation hearings but has kept giving congressmembers untrue information about his policies in office.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has repeatedly and materially misrepresented her department’s operations and just this week delivered a jaw-droppingly incorrect understanding of what habeas corpus is.
No, this excuse is purely pretextual. The Trump administration sees some benefit to putting Cuomo under this investigative cloud — which could hurt but also ultimately help Cuomo in the race — even as it determined it convenient to bring incumbent Mayor Adams out from under a much more robustly evidenced indictment.
It’s worth noting that Martin remains the only high profile Trump appointee whose nomination was fully withdrawn in the face of overwhelming opposition, a result of the fact that, even among Trump sycophants, Martin was openly enthusiastic about wielding his power to punish the president‘s enemies.
So the matter now sits on the desk of Jeanine Pirro, a former Westchester judge and district attorney and longtime Fox News commentator who was crushed by Cuomo in the state attorney general‘s race in 2010 and has since dedicated much of her public career to culture war. We don’t exactly have high hopes for her impartiality, but she should take heed of Martin’s downfall and perhaps think back on all the times that she decried what she viewed as the politicization of the Justice Department when under a president she didn’t like.
Between this and the phony investigation of New York Attorney General Tish James over an absolute non-issue, Trump‘s DOJ should realize that it is opening a door that will be very hard to close. Let’s not go down this road.
