Wolf in sheep’s clothing
Judge OKs civilian duds for jailbird witness
The star witness against a oncetop aide to Gov. Cuomo won’t have to wear jail garb when he returns to the stand Tuesday — but he’s sure to be grilled about his stunning mid-trial arrest.
Ex-lobbyist Todd Howe (inset) can wear a suit for the remainder of his testimony despite being locked up in the Metropolitan Correctional Center downtown, according to a ruling made public Monday.
However, Manhattan federal Judge Valerie Caproni is “not inclined” to go along with a prosecution request that she tell jurors Howe was jailed merely “as a result of his bail being revoked.”
“It seems to me there is a very, very fine line between saying you did not arrest him for creditcard fraud and you arrested him because you revoked his bail because he committed a crime while on release,” Caproni said during a court conference.
Howe was busted Thursday night, several hours after he admitted during cross-examination that he tried to scam his way out of paying for a $600 stay at the Waldorf Astoria in October 2016.
Howe racked up the hotel bill while negotiating a deal with prosecutors in a bid for leniency when he’s sentenced for eight felonies that carry a maximum 130 years in prison.
He claims to have served as the middleman in a corruption scheme that allegedly funneled more than $300,000 in bribes to former Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco from three co-defendants who did business with the state.
Former prosecutors said Howe’s stunning and potentially disastrous admission showed the feds clearly dropped the ball. “It’s embarrassing, obviously, for that to happen,” said Robert Ray, a former independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation of President Bill Clinton.
Former Brooklyn Organized Crime Strike Force chief Laura Brevetti called the Howe courtroom reveal a classic “gotcha” moment based on the feds wrongly assuming Howe was “not going to do anything stupid.”
The Manhattan US Attorney’s Office hasn’t said how Howe’s admission will affect his cooperation agreement.