GRANNYGATE: Why Someone Hid Accurate Death Count for New York Nursing Homes.

When the attorney general’s report came out and we saw that even the attorney general couldn’t pry these data out of the Department of Health’s hand, we followed up with a letter to the judge that had been assigned to the case and said, “Come on. What is it going to take? Even the attorney general can’t get access to these data that the Department of Health is collecting on behalf of taxpayers. You need to rule. You need to rule right now.”

And then within a matter of days, the ruling came out, ruled totally in the Empire Center’s favor. In fact, had found that we had prevailed so significantly that we were awarded costs and fees from the Department of Health. That’s significant insomuch as it means that we prevailed in a way that was unimpeachable, right?

… The case was so strong in our favor that the Department of Health had acted so poorly in this case that they were required to pay us for our time and for our costs leading up to a lawsuit and all the way through it.

Plus: “There is a political culture in Albany and in New York state government that whether it’s the governor or whether it’s the administration or whether it’s some of these entities that we’ve been talking about, the culture is sort of to withdraw and protect.”

Much more at the link.