NY POST: Star witness in Ex-Cuomo aide trial: I’m in a ‘boatload of trouble’

Star witness in Ex-Cuomo aide trial: I’m in a ‘boatload of trouble’

By Priscilla DeGregory and Bruce Golding

The prosecution’s star witness against a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted on the stand Tuesday that he himself is “in a boatload of trouble” following his arrest last week.
Ex-lobbyist Todd Howe returned to the witness stand in Manhattan federal court for the first time since he got locked up Thursday night — and was immediately questioned by a defense lawyer about getting nabbed in his hotel room by the feds.
Howe told jurors he spent the weekend in jail and woke up there Tuesday morning, but that it was “uncertain” how long he’d have to remain behind bars.

When asked why he got busted, Howe ( pictured on statnd)  said: “It was my understanding that the government thought I might have ​broken my bail agreement.”

Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Daniel Gitner (pictured) — whose previous questioning led to his incarceration — Howe also tried to walk back his admission that he lied to his credit-card company to avoid paying for a $600 stay at the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

Howe racked up the bill while visiting New York City in 2016 to meet with the feds and hammer out his cooperation deal.

“I didn’t remember in October where I​ had stayed and what I had done​, and I was disputing​. I wasn’t denying it,” he said.
Artwork by Aggie Whelan Kenny

“I had dozens of hotels​ and whatever​….I wasn’t denying that I stayed there, I was just disputing it because I wasn’t certain as to at that point, five months later, if I had or I hadn’t. I just didn’t recall.”
Gitner then asked Howe — who got special permission from the judge to trade his jail garb for a black suit, white shirt and light blue, patterned tie — “Do you agree with me today that you’re in more trouble ​today ​than you have​ ever​ been in your ​entire ​life?”
“​I believe ​I’m in a boatload of trouble, all together,” Howe answered.
During his two previous days of cross-examination, Howe was grilled about his admitted decades of lying, cheating and stealing, and he testified Tuesday that he repeatedly assured prosecutors he was a “changed” man.
“Every time I walked in the door, I was representing myself as being honest and truthful,” he said.
Howe claims to have helped execs at two companies doing business with the state funnel more than $300,000 in bribes to then-Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco.