Joe Percoco was much more than merely a top aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo. He was the governor's most feared and reliable enforcer in Albany, and so close to the Cuomo family that he was considered an honorary member. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.
He was a trusted adviser and friend. And in Albany, lawmakers knew that a call or message from Joe Percoco might as well have come directly from the governor himself. That's how close Governor Andrew Cuomo and Percoco had become after years of working together.
At Mario Cuomo's funeral, Cuomo made it clear Percoco was like family, and a member of his father's inner circle. Percoco had worked for Mario Cuomo first, as his body man.
"My father's third son, who sometimes I think he loved the most, Joe Percoco, really did an extraordinary job," Andrew Cuomo said.
But Percoco teamed up with Andrew Cuomo after leaving Mario Cuomo's side. He was Cuomo's special assistant at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration, and he ran Cuomo's unsuccessful campaign for governor in 2002. Then, Cuomo writes in his memoir, Percoco acted as his divorce counselor when he split with Kerry Kennedy.
"Joe Percoco was the total package," Cuomo wrote. "Trained as a lawyer, he had the guts, brains and stick-to-itiveness necessary to attack any project — hard."
Percoco went with him to the AG's office, and then to the second floor of the capitol.
Percoco quietly left state government last fall. Cuomo insisted his departure had nothing to do with federal investigations underway.
"He has been a fantastic public service employee. But he had needs that he had to attend to for his family," Cuomo said.
Percoco was an enforcer, literally using his body once to block a political rival from speaking to the governor at a public parade.
While the governor was not charged with any wrongdoing, the allegations against Percoco are raising questions about Cuomo's oversight of his own administration in Albany.