Joseph Percoco, a former top aide to Gov. Cuomo, was so confident𓃲 he would be working for his close friend after the 2014 election that he told his mortgage compa💮ny he was “guaranteed” a job in the administration, federal prosecutors say in a new filing.
The alleged boast runs counter to Cuomo’s claims to prosecutors that no job had been offered until after he wa🐼s voted to a second term.
“I am guaranteed a position with Gov. Andrew Cuomo post-election with his administration after the November election,” Percoco wrote in an August 2014 letter attached 🐼to his mortgage application, court documents reveal.
In Oct. 2014, Percoco also told an unnamed party see🅺king favors from Albany to “hang in there” until he was officially back in the governor’s office, court documents show.
“I cannot do that until I return to state service,” Percoco wrote in the ꦬemail. “I am currently barred from asking the 2nd floor to do anything. It’s three weeks till election day. Hang in there.”
T𝓰he documents contradict statements Cuom𝓡o made to the feds in 2016 that he waited until the end of 2014 to ask Percoco — who had left for the private sector in April 2014 — to come back to work for him.
Percoco — who was so close to the Cuomo family he was referred to as a “third son” by the governor’s dad, the late Gov. Mario Cuomo — stands accused o👍f shaking down $315,000 in b💙ribes from two companies looking to do business with the state.
Manhattan federal prosecutors raised the documents amid a spat with the 🍸defense over whether Percoco can be charged with bribery during the roughly nine month period in 2014 when he was officially working for the private sector.
The feds have argued he can be charged with bribery because he was a Cuomo campaign manager at the time and “continued to ꧂exercise State-related power and influence throughout the campaign period, even though he had no official State position.”
The defense has argued that Cuomo’s statements prove that Percoco had no official power during 2014 — and therefore cannot be charged with bribery.