Why is Governor Hochul reneging on her months-long promise to get to the bottom of the ex-governor. Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home scandals? Where is the promised probe?

At the behest of hospital lobbyists early in the pandemic, Cuomo’s health department ordered retirement and adult care homes to admit COVID-positive patients that hospitals wanted to dump. More than 9,000 people were pushed inside, and statistical analysis suggests this resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of additional deaths.

The Cuomo team not only refused to take responsibility for the nursing home deaths, but they actively covered up the true numbers and broke state laws to keep key facts hidden. He even hid data from federal authorities.

Among other things, revealing the truth would have voided Cuomo’s $5 million book deal monetizing his pandemic ‘leadership,’ suggesting the cover-up crosses the line for a bribery case even below the high bar that the Supreme Court has set for such charges – if anyone investigates properly.

At the same time, according to a new report, Cuomo & Co. “succeeded in coercing ‘ethical review’ with very minimal due diligence” on its book deal. Government loyalists on the now-replaced state “ethics” panel even covered up that report, though Post investigations led to its publication by the new Ethics and Lobbying Commission on the government website on Friday afternoon.

Perhaps other persistent Cuomo loyalists have somehow blocked the nursing home investigation. Or maybe Hochul fears being tainted by Cuomo’s wrongdoing, perhaps because she didn’t immediately fire Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who is at the heart of the horror.

Whatever the reason, whoever she protects is an outrage. New Yorkers who have lost loved ones want answers, and the government has promised to get them. She has to follow, no matter who looks bad at the end.