While his former top aide is the one facing a jury, Gov. Cuomo will be firmly on the hot seat as a blockbuster corruption trial gets underway Monday — one that experts say threatens to cripple a 2020 bid for the White House.

Joseph Percoco — a longtime Cuomo pal who the governor once likened to a brother — is charged with shaking down more than $315,000 in “pay-to-play” bribes from companies seeking millions of dollars worth of business with the state.

Cuomo can’t avoid getting tainted by the Manhattan federal court trial because “they are going to be talking about actions taken while Mr. Percoco was employed by the campaign and in state government,” said Albany Law School professor Christine Chung.

“You can’t just say, ‘This has nothing to do with me,’” she said.

“Even, at the end of the day, if there is no conviction here [Cuomo] is going to have to deal with a continued focus on public integrity and corruption issues.”

In addition to more than 11 million pages of records, the feds’ arsenal includes former lobbyist-turned-cooperating witness Todd Howe and emails in which he and Percoco allegedly referred to payoffs as “ziti” — a code word for cash that prosecutors say they lifted from an episode of HBO’s mob drama “The Sopranos.”

“This is a serious emotional problem for the governor, because Percoco was like family,” veteran Democratic political Hank Sheinkopf said.

“This is not a yesterday relationship. This is a lifetime relationship.”

Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group —who served as a special adviser to Cuomo when he was the state’s attorney general — said Percoco’s trial “is not good news for the governor, no matter how you cut it.”

“The story that is told about how the government operates will not be pretty,” he said.

“The prosecutors at best will paint an unflattering picture of how politics is done in New York, and that influence-peddling occurs.”

And regardless of the outcome, Horner said it could spell trouble for Cuomo, who’s seeking re-election in November and is widely considered a presidential wannabe.

“He will still have to deal with many who argue New York is one of the most corrupt states in the country,” he said.

Cuomo hasn’t been implicated in the case. But prosecutors plan to present evidence that Percoco arranged contributions to Cuomo’s campaign to aid his own ability to receive “bribes in exchange for helpful state action.”

The feds claim those donations are “important and relevant” to the case, even though they weren’t illegal or part of a quid pro quo involving the governor.

During a Sunday news conference at the Statue of Liberty, Cuomo was asked if he would testify at the trial — or was worried about any facts that might emerge.

“No to both,” he said.

Percoco’s trial is among several scheduled this year over alleged Albany corruption, including the re-trials of former

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Long Island), who had their unrelated convictions tossed due to a US Supreme Court ruling that acquitted former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Percoco is being tried with three co-defendants, including Syracuse developers Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, who also face a second trial in May that involves Cuomo’s signature “Buffalo Billion” economic-revitalization program.

The defendants in that case include Alain Kaloyeros, former president and CEO of the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, who’s accused of rigging bids for a $750,000 contract tied to that project and $105 million in contracts for a film studio and manufacturing plant near Syracuse.