Key witness vs. Andy aide is grilled over lies

THE FEDS’ star witness against former Gov. Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco lived a life of luxury — built on lies and a long line of unpaid debts, Percoco’s lawyer charged in court.

Todd Howe, a one-time Cuomo confidant-turned-lobbyist, has been testifying since Monday in the Manhattan Federal Court corruption case against Percoco, who had long been Cuomo’s crony and counselor.

Cross-examination of Howe (photo, left inset) kicked off Wednesday with Percoco’s lawyer, Barry Bohrer, mercilessly questioning him on his admitted dishonesty.

“Are you an honest man?” Bohrer asked, launching into his cross.

“I am today,” said Howe, who copped to eight felonies in 2016, including corruption and fraud counts. Howe pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2010.

“Let’s talk about your definition of an honest man,” Bohrer later pressed. “Does an honest man lie?” “No,” Howe calmly replied. “But you did that, didn’t you?” Howe said yes.

During Bohrer’s testimony, Howe admitted to decades of unpaid debts and judgments — including mortgages on tony houses and for home renovations.

Howe’s bilked creditors also included a health club, tree service and a tutor for his son.

“You were driving an Audi Quattro while you were stiffing all of these folks?” Bohrer asked Howe of a period around the mid-2000s.

“It was a used Audi, yes,” Howe said.

Bohrer repeatedly insinuated that Howe’s selfdescribed decision to come clean — despite years of admitted dishonesty — was just a bid to gain leniency.

Howe said at one point that Bohrer’s position that “the only reason I told the truth was a get-out-of-jail-free card” was “insulting.”

Other parts of Howe’s testimony undermined claims by one of Cuomo’s aides that the governor wasn’t very familiar with him.

In 2016, then-Cuomo chief of staff Melissa DeRosa claimed she had “never heard him talk to Todd Howe or about Todd Howe” during her prior three years working with him, according to The Wall Street Journal. “If he is in the inner circle, I don’t know which inner circle it is,” said DeRosa, who is now secretary to the governor.

Cuomo reportedly had also

said, “I wouldn’t call us close friends . . . . He worked for the state for a number of years.”

Howe testified that Percoco (photo, right inset) encouraged him to work with Cuomo’s 2010 campaign, saying in an email that it’s time “to activate the brotherhood.”

“I had a relationship with all these guys,” Howe said. “I had a relationship with the governor.”

Howe testified he communicated with numerous top members of the Cuomo administration, including via their personal emails.

Prosecutors say Percoco, 48, accepted more than $300,000 in bribes from several businessmen who sought contracts with the state.

Those businessmen include energy exec Peter Galbraith Kelly, as well as Syracuse developers Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi.

Howe, 57, has testified that he acted as a middleman in the alleged bribery schemes.