Ciattarelli To Murphy: Release Nursing Home Records Now!

New Jersey Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Jack Ciattarelli announced this morning that he was filing multiple Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests demanding that Governor Phil Murphy and Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli release for public review all records of their internal communications related to Murphy’s March 31, 2020 directive that resulted in the deaths of thousands of seniors and veterans at New Jersey nursing homes and long term care centers, plus any and all communications between Governor Murphy and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and their respective administrations and staffs.

“Governor Murphy has touted  his ‘partnership’ and ‘teamwork’ with Governor Cuomo and proclaimed that they were  ‘synchronizing plans’ throughout the pandemic.  Given what we now know about Governor Cuomo’s reprehensible and potentially illegal conduct, it’s critical that New Jerseyans – especially the loved ones of those who died in our nursing homes – know each and every detail about the conversations and communications between the two Governors and their Administrations related to this growing scandal,” said Ciattarelli.

Ciattarelli harshly criticized NJ Attorney Grewal for failing to investigate Murphy with the same vigor that NY Attorney General Letitia James is investigating Cuomo; and said his decision to file today’s public records requests was due to Grewal’s failure to do his job at Attorney General. 

“Instead of living up to his constitutional responsibilities as the chief law enforcement officer and chief legal officer in New Jersey, Attorney General Grewal is acting like a partisan political operative whose primary focus is protecting his boss in an election year,” said Ciattarelli, the presumptive GOP nominee.  “The people of New Jersey deserve better, especially the thousands of seniors who died as a direct result of Governor Murphy’s ill-fated directive and the suffering families they left behind.”

Ciattarelli predicted Murphy and his Administration would do everything in their power to conceal their communications surrounding the nursing home deaths scandal.

“By repeatedly extending the state of emergency and using executive orders to govern by fiat, Phil Murphy has arrogantly exploited a constitutional imbalance to exert far too much authority over the lives of everyday New Jerseyans. To him, we are on a purely need-to-know basis,” said Ciattarelli. 

He continued: “Governor Murphy’s arrogance is offensive, but more importantly, it’s an insult to the innocent seniors and veterans who suffered and died, and the families who are grieving them. It’s time someone held him accountable.”

Read the OPRA requests HERE .