Boy, am I in big ‘trouble’
Jailed Percoco witness admits:
The prosecution’s star witness against Joseph Percoco admitted on the stand Tuesday that he himself is “in a boatload of trouble” following his arrest last week.
Ex-lobbyist Todd Howe returned to the witness stand in Manhattan federal court for the first time since being locked up Thursday night — and was immediately questioned by a defense lawyer about getting nabbed in his hotel room by the feds.
Howe told jurors that he had spent the weekend in jail and woke up there Tuesday, but that it was “uncertain” how long he’d remain behind bars.
When asked why he was busted, Howe replied, “It was my understanding that the government thought I might have broken my bail agreement.”
Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Daniel Gitner — whose previous questioning led to Howe’s incarceration — he also tried to walk back his admission that he lied to his credit-card com- pany to avoid paying for a $600 stay at The Waldorf-Astoria.
Howe racked up the bill while visiting New York City in 2016 to meet with the feds and hammer out his guilty plea and cooperation deal in the bribery case against Percoco, a former top aide to Gov. Cuomo.
“I didn’t remember in October where I had stayed and what I had done, and I was disputing. I wasn’t denying it,” he said, referring to the Waldorf bill.
Gitner then asked Howe — who got special permission from the judge to trade his jail garb for a black suit, white shirt and light-blue, patterned tie — “Do you agree with me today that you’re in more trouble than you have been in your life?”
“I’m in a boatload of trouble,” Howe replied.
During two previous days of cross-examination, Howe was grilled about his admitted decades of lying, cheating and stealing, and he testified Tuesday that he repeatedly assured prosecutors he was a “changed” man.
“Every time I walked in the door, I was representing myself as being honest and truthful,” he said.
Howe claims to have helped execs at two companies doing business with the state funnel more than $300,000 in bribes to Percoco.
He secretly pleaded guilty in 2016 to eight felonies that carry a maximum 130 years in prison under terms of a deal in which prosecutors would seek leniency on the condition that Howe didn’t commit any more crimes.
The feds haven’t revealed if they plan to keep their end of the bargain, but a source said Howe’s cooperation agreement was still in effect even though prosecutors had yet to decide whether to advocate for him at his sentencing, which hasn’t been scheduled.