Percoco Corruption Trial In 2018 Hangs Over Cuomo's Re-Election

Percoco Corruption Trial In 2018 Hangs Over Cuomo’s Re-Election

If you don’t know the name Joe Percoco yet, you will soon. Before Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) can run for president in 2020, he must first win re-election in 2018. Yet as the New York Post reported last night, Cuomo will have to run under an ethical cloud comparable to the last unethical New York […]

April 5, 2017

If you don’t know the name Joe Percoco yet, you will soon. Before Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) can run for president in 2020, he must first win re-election in 2018. Yet as the New York Post reported last night, Cuomo will have to run under an ethical cloud comparable to the last unethical New York politician to run for president, Hillary Clinton. Cuomo’s latest problem is that the corruption trial of Joe Percoco, once referred to as Mario Cuomo’s third son, threatens to be a huge headache for Cuomo as he runs for re-election. According to Percoco’s lawyers, there is “so much evidence” against the former top Cuomo aide that the trial needs to be pushed into 2018:

“There is so much evidence piling up in the Manhattan federal case against a man who was once one of Gov. Cuomo’s most trusted aides that his lawyers don’t think they’ll be ready for trial, according to court papers. Evidence in the bribery case against Joe Percoco — including 11 million pages of material and images from 22 electronic devices — has been so voluminous that reviewing it has proven to be a ‘Herculean task,’ his lawyer complained in a filing Tuesday.”

Cuomo has faced lingering ethics questions throughout his time as governor. Already Cuomo has speculated that he’ll be asked to testify in the Percoco trial which would only further spotlight his shaky ethics history. As Cuomo prepares for the national spotlight, his administration’s problems will continue to haunt him.