By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE, Associated Press

With just weeks to go until New York City’s mayoral primary, one of the leading candidates, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, finds himself under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. He seems to think it might actually help.

In a new advertisement released Wednesday, the Cuomo campaign seized on the investigation as a potential selling point to voters, calling it an attempt by the Trump administration to “interfere with New York City’s election.”

“Why? Because Andrew Cuomo is the last person they want as mayor,” the ad says. “If Donald Trump doesn’t want Andrew Cuomo as mayor, you do.”

It added that Cuomo would be a mayor who stood up to “bullies.”

The investigation, confirmed to The Associated Press Tuesday by a person familiar with the matter, is centered on the truthfulness of statements Cuomo made to Congress last year about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as it spread through nursing homes. The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In other times, revelations so close to an election that a major candidate was the subject of a criminal probe might mean political doom.

But while some of Cuomo’s opponents in the Democratic primary pounced, accusing the former governor of perjury during his Congressional testimony, others said they were disturbed by what they characterized as the political weaponization of federal law enforcement.

The Justice Department recently launched an investigation of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has battled Trump in civil court, over paperwork related to a home she helped a relative buy in Virginia. It filed criminal charges against a Democratic member of Congress for jostling with federal agents as they arrested the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey outside an immigration detention center. The Secret Service interviewed former F.B.I. director James B. Comey about a message critical of Trump that he posted on social media.

Trump’s Justice Department also scuttled a criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams — a Trump ally on immigration policy.

Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic state lawmaker who is running for mayor, said that while he believed Cuomo had lied to Congress, “Donald Trump cannot be trusted to pursue justice.”

“While I believe New Yorkers should reject the disgraced ex-Governor at the ballot box, the Trump administration’s actions are dangerous,” Mamdani said in a statement.

Cuomo questioned over handling of report about nursing home deaths

Cuomo, who touts his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic on the campaign trail, has been dogged by a short-lived state directive that temporarily prevented nursing homes from refusing to accept patients recovering from the virus. The policy, intended to help alleviate hospital overcrowding, was reversed after criticism that it might accelerate virus outbreaks in nursing homes.

Amid the scrutiny, Cuomo’s administration substantially understated deaths in nursing homes in its public reports for several months, fueling more criticism that it was engaged in a cover-up.

Cuomo was grilled on the subject by a congressional panel last year, with the group saying it had evidence that Cuomo had reviewed, edited and drafted parts of a state health department report on nursing home deaths. Cuomo told the panel he was not involved in the report, but then later said he did not recall being involved.

The panel referred Cuomo to the Biden administration’s Justice Department for criminal prosecution over accusations that he lied to Congress, but no charges were brought. Months later, Republican Rep. James Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, then re-sent the referral to the Justice Department after Trump took office, releasing a statement saying Cuomo “must be prosecuted.”

Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in an email that “Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee — but from the beginning this was all transparently political.”

The Justice Department has declined to comment. Jeanine Pirro, who has been a harsh critic of Cuomo’s pandemic nursing home response from her perch as a Fox News host, was recently appointed as the new leader of the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. Pirro had unsuccessfully challenged Cuomo in a 2006 state attorney general race.

Probe may not change many people’s votes, former party leader says

Basil Smikle, former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, predicted that the investigation might not lead to many people changing their votes.

“If you’re a Cuomo voter, you’ve already made up your mind that you’re OK with all of the stuff that’s in his past,” he said. “I don’t know if this changes things much.”

That could change though, he said, if Cuomo were to be charged and it became clear that a criminal case would interfere with his ability to serve as mayor.

Still, the probe has allowed some of Cuomo’s opponents to hammer the former governor for, in their view, being insufficiently critical of Trump on the campaign trail.

“Andrew Cuomo believing he may need a pardon for committing perjury explains his incessant kissing up to Donald Trump,” said city Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running against Cuomo.

The current mayor, Adams, who dropped out of the Democratic primary but is still running for a second term on an independent ballot line, told reporters Wednesday that he wouldn’t comment on the investigation.

“I’m not going to do to him what others did to me,” he said. “I’m going to allow the investigation to take its course.”