In October 2024, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic referred Cuomo to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution following testimony that he gave before the panel in June. In the criminal referral, committee chairman Brad Wenstrup wrote to then–U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland that the panel concluded the former governor lied about his involvement with a July 2020 state-government report on nursing-home infections and deaths from COVID-19. Wenstrup said that Cuomo stated he wasn’t involved in the drafting or review of the report, statements he alleges were proved false by supporting documents.

“Mr. Cuomo provided false statements to the Select Subcommittee in what appears to be a conscious, calculated effort to insulate himself from accountability. The Department of Justice should consider Mr. Cuomo’s prior allegedly wrongful conduct when evaluating whether to charge him for the false statements described in the attached,” he wrote.

The referral ultimately went unanswered in the waning days of the Biden administration but was later renewed in April as House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer sent a new letter to U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi, asking her to review the referral. “To our knowledge, the Biden Administration ignored this referral despite clear facts and evidence. Accordingly, we request you review this referral and take appropriate action,” he wrote.

In its referral, the committee included emails from executive-chamber staff that appeared to contradict Cuomo’s assertions to the panel that he wasn’t involved in the report. In one example, Farrah Kennedy, an executive assistant, wrote in a June 2020 email to other staffers, “Governor’s edits are attached for your review,” noting page numbers and where his additions were made. In her own testimony, Kennedy also appeared to confirm that handwritten notes made on a draft of the report were Cuomo’s handwriting.