NYC NOW - Andrew Cuomo and Jeanine Pirro Have a Combative History. Now, She Might Oversee a Federal Probe Into Him

Episode Date: May 24, 2025

Former Governor and mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo and Jeanine Pirro have a long, combative history. Now, The New York Times reports that Pirro, recently appointed to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington D.C., is overseeing a criminal investigation into Cuomo’s congressional testimony about his handling of COVID in nursing homes. WNYC's Samantha Max explores their political rivalry and what it could mean for the case.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Happy Saturday. Hope it's off to a good start. This week, we learned that the Justice Department is reportedly investigating former governor Andrew Cuomo for what he told Congress about how his administration handled COVID-19 in nursing homes. Multiple outlets are reporting that the investigation is being led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. the person now in charge of that office is Janine Piro. Piro had once run against Cuomo. Later as a Fox News personality, she used her platform to go after him. Now, she may hold power over his future. So how did this rivalry begin? And what could it mean today? WMYC's

Samantha Max has been reporting on the case. Sam, tell us a little bit more about Janine Piro and how she crossed paths with Andrew Cuomo. So now she's the, U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., that's as of about just a couple weeks ago. Before that, she was known as a Fox News host, but her roots are here in New York. She is from upstate in Elmira. She worked as a prosecutor in Westchester County, then as a judge, and then in the 1990s and early 2000s, she led the Westchester County DA's office. After that, in 2005, she launched a campaign for a U.S. Senator to try to unseat Hillary Clinton. But she dropped out of that race shortly after.

And then the next year, she ran against Cuomo to be New York Attorney General. So that is really where their paths cross. Okay. And what happened when they ran against each other for attorney general? Some of it was typical partisan politics. Cuomo was running as the Democrat in that election. Piro was running as the Republican. So there are certain things that, of course, just when two different partisans are running against each other talking about criminal justice, they are going to be disagreements.

Cuomo claimed to be more focused on corruption and standing up to powerful entities like Wall Street on behalf of New Yorkers. Piro was touting herself as the tough on crime candidate and a fierce advocate for victims, especially victims of sexual abuse, which was one of her main focuses when she was the district attorney. I went into the WNYC archives and found a recording of one of their debates from 2006. It was hosted by WABC, Univision, and The Daily News. And during that debate, they disagreed about a lot. But I support same-sex marriage. I believe the Attorney General should be 100% committed to civil rights anti-discrimination enforcement. I do not support same-sex marriages.

I oppose the death penalty. I oppose it on. moral grounds and I oppose it because it is imperfect. I believe in the death penalty in certain cases. I believe in it for cop killers, for terrorists, for the sexually violent predators who murder our children. And when I was the DA, I saw it at once. Piro accused Cuomo of being unqualified for the job.

Because you've never been a real prosecutor. And she scoffed at his promises to address government corruption. Andrew, your reform proposals to clean up all that. are hypocrisy upon hypocrisy. But this wasn't just a debate about policy and political records. There was also a scandal that was brewing in the midst of all of this. Just a few weeks before Election Day, news broke that federal prosecutors were investigating Piro

on allegations that she tried to plant a recording device on her husband's boat because she suspected he was having an affair. This was a huge scandal in the moment. Piro said it was a private matter that shouldn't be the subject of an investigation. The leaking of this information, 40 days before an election, was time to hurt me personally and to hurt my campaign. And in fact, what I think is really appalling is the fact that we need to have this thing completed so that New Yorkers have an opportunity to focus on the issues and the fact that my opponent has applauded the extension of this investigation going beyond

election is totally inappropriate and shows how political it is. During the debate, when Piro asked Cuomo about his ethics, he was quick to remind voters that he wasn't the candidate facing an investigation. Just so we're clear, there is a candidate who is being accused of criminal wrongdoing and is under investigation by a number of law enforcement agencies and has, has their ethics questioned. That's not me, however. And now, as Cuomo is running for mayor of New York City almost 20 years later, there are reports that he is a candidate that's facing federal investigation. Yeah. Wow. All right. So after politics, Piro became a media figure for Fox.

How did she use her platform there to talk about Cuomo? Well, there's one example that I found from January 2021. This was when Cuomo was governor. It was the pandemic. and the Attorney General's office had just released a report that found that his administration was undercounting deaths of nursing home residents. And Puro dedicated a nearly 11-minute monologue to it on her Fox News show, Justice with Judge Janine. The reason Americans don't trust politicians is because they lie. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is a case in point.

She called Cuomo narcissistic and criticized his decision. decision to write a book about COVID while the pandemic was still raging. But she took particular aim at several of his policies. There was this directive that let nursing home residents return from the hospital, even if they had COVID. She was really critical of that saying that it put vulnerable seniors at risk. And she also was critical of legislation that Cuomo signed that gave immunity to nursing home operators. So people whose loved ones had died couldn't file lawsuits. They were trying to live their final years with dignity. You took that from them, and you gave them a death sentence. Wow. So now that Piro leads the U.S. Attorney's Office in

D.C., what authority does she have and how might it affect this investigation of Cuomo and his handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes? So the New York Times reports that this investigation has been happening for about a month. And given that Piro, which just appointed a couple of weeks ago, it predates her. There's no guarantee how long she'll stay in this position right now she's serving as an interim and Congress would need to confirm her. But for however long she is in this role, she would have the final say on whether to continue this investigation that's reportedly going on and pursue charges. Yeah. All right, Sam, you know, given the history between Janine Piro and Andrew Cuomo, how much of this feels like coincidence and

And how much could that pass shape what happens next? Well, I want to make clear that this is not happening just because of Janine Piro. A U.S. House subcommittee started investigating Cuomo back in 2023. He testified before Congress last year. And then last fall, that subcommittee actually asked the Justice Department, which was, of course, then under President Joe Biden's administration, to investigate whether Cuomo had lied during that testimony. So this investigation being reported on now, it's a long time coming, at least to some extent, it's a coincidence that Piro is involved. But now that she is leading the office that's reportedly investigating Cuomo, her history with her former political opponent could shape what happens next. That's WNYC's public safety reporter Samantha Max.

Thanks so much, Sam. Thank you. And thank you for listening. and stay tuned to NYC Now and our news site Gothamus for the latest on this developing story. Enjoy your holiday weekend. We'll be back with one episode on Monday.