TOWNHALL – It appears that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) was not the only one with a COVID-19 scandal, though in his case, he faced many.
Where his successor, current Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) has one of her own includes paying $637 million for COVID tests when the vendor happened to be a donor.
As Chris Bragg covered for The Times Union, Gov. Hochul claimed during a July 20 press briefing that “I was not aware that this was a company that had been supportive of me” and that “I don’t keep track of that. My team, they have no idea.”
It appears that the governor may have been lying, though, as records show that the company’s founder had thrown an in-person fundraiser for Hochul.
Bragg further details in his piece:
According to Hochul’s campaign disclosure forms, the Nov. 22 fundraiser was thrown by Charlie Tebele, founder of Digital Gadgets LLC. A month later, the company would begin reaping $637 million in payments from Hochul’s administration to facilitate the purchase of 52 million at-home, rapid coronavirus tests.
The deal was enabled by Hochul’s revived suspension of competitive bidding rules for the administration’s purchase of COVID-19 supplies — a policy change that had also been been put in place for a time by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Through an emergency executive order, Hochul suspended those rules on Nov. 26, four days after the Tebele fundraiser …
The Tebele family has donated nearly $300,000 to Hochul’s campaign, and Tebele has thrown her two campaign fundraisers: One a month before the purchase orders were executed, and one on April 10, two weeks after the payments were complete.
In instances involving other campaign donors, emails show Hochul has discussed state government business at fundraisers, and her campaign staff helped connect those donors with high-ranking staff in Hochul’s Executive Chamber.
On Dec. 16, Hochul’s campaign received $20,000 from Leon Tebele, who is also listed as having the same Manhattan address as the couple … READ MORE.
