The Justice Department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about tnursing home deaths in the Empire State

during the COVID-19 pandemic. The probe into the New York City mayoral front-runner was launched about a month ago by the Washington, DC, US Attorney’s Office, the New York Times reported 

Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter. The office was led at the time by Ed Martin, who was replaced earlier this month by Jeanine Pirro. The Republican-led House Oversight and

Government Reform Committee asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue criminal charges against Cuomo, a Democrat, for making “criminally false statements” during a June 11, 2024, interview

drafted, reviewed, discussed or consulted people for “peer-review” on the nursing home report, which was published by the New York state Department of Health. Comer previously referred Cuomo

for prosecution last year, but his request was denied by President Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland. The former governor’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told The Post that he was

unaware of any investigation — slamming the prospect of one as “lawfare and election interference.”  “We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now?” he

said in a statement. “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. “Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee —

but from the beginning this was all transparently political,” he added.  “The wheels of justice are finally beginning to turn,” Voices for Seniors said in a statement on X. “For over five

years, our movement has been fueled by heartbreak and a single-minded demand for the truth. “This investigation is not just justified, it’s overdue. The evidence paints a damning picture of

a leader more concerned with image than integrity. Grieving families have waited long enough.” “Thank God our fight has not been in vain,” co-founder Vivian Zayas, whose mom, Ana Martinez,

died of COVID after a stint in a West Islip nursing home in 2020, told The Post. She said nursing home families sent three letters to Bondi urging a criminal probe of Cuomo. “We’re just

elated this investigation of Cuomo is going forward. It’s a long-overdue victory for the nursing home families and their loved ones,” Zayas added. Daniel Arbeeny, a co-founder of We Care

Memorial Wall for COVID nursing home victims, also applauded the probe. “Cuomo should be held accountable. It’s that simple,” said Arbeeny, whose father, Norman, died from COVID. “We need to

know if Cuomo was lying about following federal guidelines. He forced nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients and thousands of nursing home residents needlessly died.” The report

Cuomo is accused of lying to Congress about downplayed the consequences of his infamous March 25, 2020, directive forcing recovering COVID patients into senior care facilities without

mandated testing to see if they could still infect others. By May 10, when Cuomo revoked the order, thousands of sick New Yorkers had been either admitted or readmitted into nursing homes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had acknowledged the risk of asymptomatic spread six days earlier — but media outlets had been reporting on the possibility of such infections

since early April. Cuomo told lawmakers last year that he did not “recall” even seeing the July 2020 nursing home report before its publication. Emails obtained by subcommittee staff,

however, show that Cuomo aides discussed his participation in the drafting of the audit — and the former governor’s own handwritten edits were also submitted as evidence to the DOJ. Those

edits included a note stating that by the date the nursing home mandate was rescinded, “the disease was already in the nursing homes” — and crossing out the word “death” to replace it with

the approximate timeline it took for infections to become fatalities, among others. “New York is 6,600?” Cuomo scrawled in the margins of one draft page — despite more than 9,000 perishing

when counting those who were in hospitals. The final report cited just 6,432 fatalities. Pirro, who is handling the probe, is a former political rival of Cuomo’s who has been publicly

critical of the ex-governor’s pandemic nursing home policy.  “You cannot escape the consequences of your intentional and reckless acts,” Pirro, a former Fox News host, raged in a 2021

segment on the network about Cuomo, according to the New York Times.  “You cannot escape your intentional cover-up,” she added, arguing that Cuomo handed seniors “a death sentence.”  Pirro

further argued that New York prosecutors should consider manslaughter and negligent homicide charges against Cuomo over his nursing home policy.  KEEP UP WITH TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS

Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. THANKS FOR SIGNING UP! Pirro ran a failed campaign against Cuomo in the 2006 race for New York attorney general.  The report of the

investigation into the mayoral front-runner comes one day after Cuomo released a new campaign ad touting his leadership during the pandemic.  “It was the greatest health crisis in our

history — and when New Yorkers were desperate for leadership, Andrew Cuomo delivered,” the narrator says in the 30-second spot, titled, “Crisis.”  “He didn’t just provide information in

those daily COVID briefings — he acted, building emergency hospitals and deploying first responders,” the ad continues.  Cuomo defended his nursing home policy earlier Tuesday during an

interview on the “Honestly with Bari Weiss” podcast.  “When you now go back and look at the facts, everything New York state did followed federal guidance,” he asserted.  Cuomo dismissed

claims that he undercounted nursing home deaths as “so untrue” and the result of “politics.”  “I get the politics. I understand why they were doing it and why they had their outlets echo it

over and over and over — and then it was amplified by the nursing home families who just bought into all this conservative rhetoric,” he said.   “Only 12 states did better” than New York in

terms of preventing deaths during the pandemic, the mayoral hopeful insisted. Democratic socialist Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani — who is running second to Cuomo in the race — blasted

the former governor and Trump in a statement. “Andrew Cuomo’s career has been defined by corruption and deceit and his lying to Congress about his COVID response is no exception. But Donald

Trump cannot be trusted to pursue justice. While I believe New Yorkers should reject the disgraced ex-Governor at the ballot box, the Trump administration’s actions are dangerous.” Other

candidates soon joined the fray, with city Comptroller Brad Lander writing on X that “New Yorkers can’t afford four more years of a compromised Mayor kissing Trump’s ass,” while Brooklyn

Sen. Zellnor Myrie wrote, “We cannot trade one compromised mayor for another.” The DOJ did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.