Corruption trial of former Cuomo aide set to begin

ALBANY, N.Y. » For decades, Joseph Percoco was among the most loyal aides and confidants to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, so close to his family that the governor once likened him to a brother.

This week, he faces trial in New York City on federal charges that he used that relationship to collect a fortune in bribes from two companies doing business with the state.

Jury selection is set to begin Monday in a case that has already proven to be a source of personal pain and political embarrassment for Cuomo, a Democrat and possible presidential candidate in 2020 who came into office vowing to do something about Albany’s corrupt culture.

While Cuomo is not accused of wrongdoing and isn’t expected to testify, the charges against Percoco have damaged both his image as a reformer and one of his signature policy initiatives, the investment of billions of dollars in public money in to upstate economic development programs.

Percoco, and others, are accused of enriching themselves by selling their influence to companies involved in those efforts.

“If you asked people ‘are you proud of our Albany government?’ you wouldn’t get a lot of people to answer yes,” said Bill Samuels, a longtime progressive activist and advocate for ethics reforms. “Cuomo has had eight years to change this. Where is his legacy? The public is so inured to these trials they’ve given up.”

Percoco’s ties to the Cuomo family go back to his service as a teenager for the governor’s father, the late Gov. Mario Cuomo. He was involved in Andrew Cuomo’s first, failed run for governor in 2002, joined his staff when he was elected Attorney General in 2006 and then helped him win the governor’s office in 2010.

As Cuomo’s executive deputy secretary, Percoco was a gruff political operative known for his intimidating manner. He left state employment in 2014 to lead Cuomo’s re-election campaign and briefly rejoined the administration that same year before taking a job as a vice president at Madison Square Garden.

At his father’s funeral in 2015 Andrew Cuomo called Percoco “my father’s third son, who sometimes I think he loved the most.”

Prosecutors say Percoco sold his influence in the halls of power by taking more than $315,000 from 2012 through 2016 from a Syracuse real estate development company, COR Development, and Competitive Power Ventures, an energy company looking to build a power plant in the Hudson Valley.