Percoco's trial could actually be disastrous for Cuomo

Chris Christie had his “traffic problems” but Andrew Cuomo may have to deal with boxes of “ziti.”

Both governors suffered ulcers from watching their closest friends in politics get indicted for abusing their power and making selfish decisions.

Federal prosecutors have presented evidence that former Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco used his influence with the governor on behalf of companies in exchange for bribes code-named after pasta.

Cuomo was not a supporting actor in Percoco’s corruption trial, which began on Jan. 22, in the same way that Christie chewed scenery during Bridgegate.

Across the Hudson, former Christie aides testified how they jammed traffic on the George Washington Bridge to punish a local Democratic mayor and what Christie may have known about their scheme.

The sordid details from the trial sunk Christie’s presidential bid and damaged his chances for becoming Donald Trump’s running mate. Apparently you lose credibility with the president if you’re seen as a colluder.

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Cuomo, who is running for re-election this year and is discussed as a 2020 presidential candidate, is watching his former aide’s trial closely.

Four years ago, Percoco left his job as executive deputy secretary to manage Cuomo’s first re-election campaign. He took money from a Syracuse-based development firm and a Maryland-based power company to supplement his income – possibly because he spent too much money on a new house in Westchester to be closer to the governor, Percoco’s lawyer acknowledged.

Instead of calling the Joint Commission on Public Ethics to see if the payments were kosher, he picked the brain of Cuomo counsel Seth Agata, according to testimony in the case.

Agata told the court he advised Percoco to stay away from companies doing business with the state.

“Don’t touch it with a 10-foot pole,” Agata said. His advice was apparently not taken.

That conversation took place in Percoco’s office in the executive chamber, even though Percoco was no longer working there. This detail did not seem to worry Agata, who in unironic coincidence was chosen by JCOPE’s board to become its executive director in March 2016 after a “national search.”

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From May to December 2014, Percoco was still allowed to swipe his card into the governor’s midtown Manhattan offices, where he made 837 phone calls and sent emails from personal accounts even though he wasn’t a state employee at the time, according to court records.

That’s no small matter. Watchdogs filed two ethics complaints with JCOPE, one of which alleged Cuomo violated the state Public Officers Law by allowing Percoco to roam freely around the executive chamber.

“That office should not have been used by a private citizen to conduct political activity or personal business as Joe Percoco was doing,” state Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox, who filed the complaint, said at the steps of Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse on Feb. 15. “The issue is not whether Joe Percoco can be indicted on these charges ... but whether the governor was aiding and abetting him in using government resources as a private citizen and a campaign official.”

The other complaint, filed by former Commission on Lobbying Commissioner David Grandeau, claimed that Agata, JCOPE’s director, “engaged in a pattern of misconduct” by giving Percoco legal advice and then not asking Percoco to disclose the source of his income when he got his old job back.

“As soon as Agata testified he gave that opinion, he should have been fired, but not only has he not been fired, he won’t talk about it,” Grandeau told City & State.

The complaints present a quandary for the ethics commission and its leaders.

The governor appoints six members of the 14-member board while legislative leaders in the state Senate and Assembly appoint the rest. Agata will likely have to abstain from discussions and the board should appoint a special investigator to review it, ethics watchdogs say.

“It may be a better practice for him to recuse because of the appearance of bias (in Cox’s complaint),” said Jane Feldman, a government ethics consultant who once advised the Assembly, in an email to City & State.

“Seth should obviously not participate in the discussion or investigation of the case against him, and given the fact that he is its executive director, they should hire an outside person to review the case and make recommendations,” she added.

JCOPE spokesman Walter McClure noted the commission has a recusal policy in place but said the commission “can’t comment on anything that may or may not be an investigative matter.” Neither complaint was mentioned during the commission’s public session meeting on Feb. 27.

These complaints also raise questions about what Cuomo knew Percoco was doing in his office, even if that didn’t get addressed in the final days of the trial.

We don’t know whether Cuomo, a notorious micromanager, requested Percoco work from his Manhattan office so he could be nearby. We don’t know how many meetings Percoco had with Cuomo or others, and what topics they discussed. Phone records and building scans into 633 Third Ave. do exist, as we learned in the trial. Cuomo has declined discussing the case and a Cuomo campaign spokesman characterized Cox’s complaint as “laughable.”

State Democratic Party Executive Director Geoff Berman said, “This is yet another blatant attempt to politicize law enforcement from Ed Cox and his merry band of hypocrites.”

We don’t know whether Agata briefed Cuomo about Percoco’s income. But Agata and plenty of other state employees knew Percoco was working in the executive chamber when he should have been at Cuomo’s campaign headquarters a few blocks north.

“For (the governor) not to know he was in the office for an extended period of time, that would be incredible,” Cox said.

As the state’s Republican Party leader, Cox has already promised to make corruption an issue on the campaign trail this year. That could resonate if Percoco or any of his co-defendants are convicted. Cuomo’s statewide approval rating dipped from 62 percent in January to 53 percent in February, although the trial was just getting underway.

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It may take some convictions in Cuomo’s inner circle for state ethics laws to change.

That’s what happened in Connecticut after then-Gov. John Rowland resigned amid a corruption investigation in 2004 and pleaded guilty to fraud.

Connecticut’s ethics commission increased the number of board members from five to nine, gained control over its own budget, required three to be unaffiliated with any party and ensured board members, not the governor, appoint their chair and executive director.

Cuomo may need to relinquish some of his control over New York’s ethics commission and consider personnel changes in light of the trial. Or the next thing he loses may be more than a few points in the polls.