Jurors began considering corruption charges against a former top aide to Gov. Cuomo on Thursday, following arguments from a prosecutor who urged them to ignore the mid-trial arrest of the star witness against Joseph Percoco and three co-defendants.

Deliberations began shortly after 1 p.m., when Manhattan federal Judge Valerie Caproni finished reading more than 40 pages of legal instructions.

Earlier, prosecutor Janis Echenberg delivered a rebuttal summation in which she called defense attacks on cooperating witness Todd Howe “a distraction” from “all the overwhelming evidence in this case.”

“See the defense arguments for what they are. They are asking for a free pass. They are saying, ‘We dealt with a bad guy and we should get away with it.’”

Howe is a former lobbyist and admitted fraudster who claims he was the middleman in a pair of schemes that allegedly funneled more than $300,000 in bribes to Percoco from execs at two companies doing business with the state.

Howe spent more than a week on the witness stand, and was arrested after admitting under cross-examination that he tried to scam his way out of paying for a stay at the Waldorf Astoria hotel while he was negotiating his deal with the feds.

“Todd Howe will have his day of reckoning. He will be sentenced for the crimes he pled guilty to,” Echenberg said.