NEW YORK – New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and some family members were given priority to receive COVID-19 testing from the state at their Long Island private residence last summer after a family member tested positive, according to a court official.
Preferential testing reports for people related to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration, when evidence was scarce, are part of an ongoing impeachment investigation against Cuomo.
A spokesperson for the state’s Office of Court Administration confirmed that DiFiore and his family had received the evidence at his Southampton residence, reported Friday on Friday. Times Union of Albany.
“It was the only time,” said Lucian Chalfen, spokesman for the Office of Court Administration. “He got in touch with the (state Department of Health) to see what to do and these people came forward to do what they did.”
The State Public Officials Law prohibits state employees or officials from using their position to “secure unjustified privileges or exemptions for themselves or others.”
The primary focus of the impeachment investigation remains the sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo, which he has denied, as well as reports that his administration intentionally failed to report deaths from COVID-19 in nursing homes. Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Lavine told the agency in March The Associated Press that preferential test reports would be explored.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi has said the administration “was doing everything it could to get people tested” in the early days of the pandemic.
If an impeachment trial of Cuomo were to take place in the state Senate, DiFiore would sit as one of the jurors, as she is the state’s chief judge and the head of the Court of Appeals, the Times Union reported. DiFiore was appointed to the court by Cuomo in 2015.
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