NY Assembly demands Cuomo release full transcript nursing home call as gov remains silent

New York Assemblyman Mike Lawler is demanding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo release the full tape of his administration's conversation with Democratic lawmakers after a portion of the meeting revealed his top aide admitted to withholding data from Justice Department investigators probing nursing home deaths related to COVID-19. 

On Friday, Cuomo's office released a partial transcript of the call, where Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, said Cuomo's administration feared the data about COVID-19 deaths could "be used against us" by the Justice Department in the midst of its federal probe, placing blame, in part, on former President Donald Trump who repeatedly attacked Cuomo's pandemic response.  "We were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation," DeRosa told the lawmakers, according to the transcript of the call released Friday by Cuomo's office and reviewed by Fox News.