Cuomo Finalized $4M Book Deal As Aides Hid Death Toll: Report

NEW YORK CITY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo finalized a $4 million book deal as his aides buried the potentially-damaging number of nursing home deaths from the coronavirus, according to a new report.

A New York Times report details Cuomo's pursuit of a deal for what eventually became his book “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic.”

The deal was sealed around when Cuomo's top aides stripped the true number of nursing home deaths in the pandemic from a July report that effectively cleared his administration of fault, the Times reported.

Rich Azzopardi, a top Cuomo adviser and spokesperson, told the Times there was no connection between the two.

“There is no connection between the report and this outside project, period,” Azzopardi told the Times. “And any suggestion otherwise is just wrong.”

Early drafts of Cuomo's book reported the nursing home death tally at 9,844 — higher than the 6,432 counted in the final, edited state report in July, according to the Times.

The Times report also details how Cuomo's book originally had a three-page "broadside" against Mayor Bill de Blasio. Cuomo characterized de Blasio as a political opportunist suffering from “obvious ego driven narcissism," according to the Times.

The attack was eventually excised from the book. Bill Neidhardt, the mayor's top spokesperson, told the Times that Cuomo "writing about ego-driven narcissism sounds like the pot calling the kettle black."

The Times report adds to a swirl of scandals around Cuomo, who faces potential impeachment.

Read the New York Times report here.