Metro

Supreme Court likely to toss conviction of ex-Andrew Cuomo crony Joe Percoco

The US Supreme Court appears poised to overturn the corruption conviction of a former top aide to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a pair of “pay-to-play” fraud schemes.

Both conservative and liberal justices on the high court seemed sympathetic to claims raised on Joe Percoco’s behalf during oral arguments on Monday.

If a majority sides with Percoco and his co-defendants in the infamous “Buffalo Billion” case, it would mark the latest in a string of rulings that have made it harder for the feds to prosecute government officials for alleged corruption.

In 2018, Percoco — whom Cuomo once publicly likened to a brother — was found guilty of conspiracy to commit “honest services” fraud for pocketing more than $300,000 from execs at two companies doing business with the state.

Percoco maintains that the payments he took in 2014 weren’t bribes because he was on leave from his government job and working for Cuomo’s re-election campaign at the time.

Joe Percoco, a former top aide to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit “honest services” fraud for pocketing more than $300,000 from execs at two companies doing business with the state. R Umar Abbasi

Defense lawyer Yaakov Roth argued Monday that although Percoco wielded considerable influence due to his “close relationship to the Cuomo family,” the case against him “strolls recklessly into a constitutional minefield” that could cover “many lobbyists and donors and interest groups and others.”

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch seemed to agree, calling it an “interesting public policy question” and asking, “If the court were to go behind that, is there any stopping point?”

“This town is full of such persons and presidents have had kitchen cabinets since the beginning of time. And those people are often taken quite seriously in the halls of government, whether they should or not,” he said.

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch seemed to be sympathetic to Percoco’s case. Getty Images

Justice Department lawyer Nicole Reaves countered that even if Percoco wasn’t technically a government employee, he “was able to attend internal government meetings that no one else from outside the government was able to attend.”

“He continued to have key card access. He continued to order his secretary’s former secretary around. He continued to use government phones and offices. And because of this … [he] was operating essentially in the exact same role that he had previously formerly held,” she said.

But liberal Justice Elena Kagan said Reaves was “proposing a test” in which “you don’t have to be a former official” and “you don’t need to be a future official.”

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2018 said Joe Percoco was like a brother to him. Getty Images

“I don’t think you can give me that test without making it look like the guy is just a really, really good lobbyist,” she said.

Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas also noted that state prosecutors never went after Percoco or his co-defendants, saying, “It seems as though we are using a federal law to impose ethical standards on state activity.”

In 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously threw out the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell for honest services fraud, ruling that although he took payments and gifts from a wealthy business owner, he never took any official actions in return.

Two years ago, the entire high court also tossed the wire-fraud convictions of Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni in New Jersey’s “Bridgegate” scandal on grounds that although they corruptly abused their power to snarl traffic in Fort Lee, they “did not aim to obtain money or property.”

With Post wires