Joseph Percoco, a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Photo: David Handschuh/NYLJ

In closing arguments on Wednesday in the corruption trial for Joseph Percoco, a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Percoco's attorney made a final effort to impeach the government's star witness in the case while portraying his client's alleged quid pro quo as attempts to help out friends.

Percoco's attorney, Barry Bohrer of Schulte Roth & Zabel, also used his closing arguments, which lasted most of the day and concluded late in the afternoon, to criticize certain aspects of the prosecution's case against Percoco and his three co-defendants, including its focus on the language used in emails presented as government exhibits.

“The government's case is all talk and no action,” Bohrer said to jurors. “And certainly no official action.”

Percoco is charged with extortion, soliciting and receiving bribes and associated conspiracy counts for taking part in pay-to-play schemes to help private companies obtain government contracts and circumnavigate bureaucracy.

He is accused of taking more than $300,000 bribes from Competitive Power Ventures, an energy company that sought a power purchase agreement for a natural gas-fired plant in Orange County, New York; and taking $35,000 from COR Development, a developer that sought contracts for projects in the Syracuse area as well as Percoco's help dealing with a labor union.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York dropped an extortion under color of official right count from the indictment against Percoco, finding he was working on Cuomo's re-election campaign—not the governor's office—at the time of some of his alleged conduct. Such activity would not qualify as official acts, she reasoned.

The extortion charge related to the alleged scheme involving COR Development. CPV executives are accused of setting up Percoco's wife with a “low-show” job with the company as an education consultant that paid $90,000 annually.

Percoco is standing trial alongside former CPV executive Peter Galbraith Kelly Jr. and former COR executives Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi.

The jury heard closing arguments from attorneys for Kelly, Aiello and Gerardi on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning.

But much of the attention in the six-week trial was cast on the government's star witness, former Whiteman Osterman & Hanna lobbyist Todd Howe, a longtime friend of Percoco's who allegedly worked to connect Percoco with companies seeking to do business with the state.
The relationship between Howe and Percoco went back some 30 years, when Howe hired Percoco to work on the campaign of Gov. Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo's father.

Howe entered into a cooperation agreement with the government in September 2016 in which he pleaded guilty to eight counts.

Earlier this month, Howe was arrested after admitting on the stand that he had fraudulently attempted to dispute the purchase of a luxury Manhattan hotel room with his credit card and after admitting that he falsely stated on an application for disability insurance that he did not have a past felony conviction.

Throughout the trial, the prosecution has relied heavily on emails between Percoco, Howe, Percoco's co-defendants and other officials to prove their case to the jury.

In closing arguments on Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney David Zhou also focused in on the occasionally coarse language used in the emails, particularly the frequent use of the word “ziti,” a reference to a term used in an episode of “The Sorpranos” as a reference to money used in a poker game.

“'Where the hell is the ziti, Herb?'” Zhou said during his closing arguments, reading from one of the emails presented as an exhibit in the case.

During his closing arguments, Bohrer addressed Zhou's reference to the line.

“Here's a better question: where the hell is the proof?” Bohrer said. He said that Percoco is a “guy who takes care of his friends” and helped to arrange for meetings between executives and officials, which he said should not fall under the description of an official act.

The government is expected to begin its summation on Thursday. In addition to Zhou, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Janis Echenberg, Robert Boone and Matthew Podolsky are prosecuting the case.