Closing arguments in Norman Seabrook bribery trial in Manhattan

The Ferragamo bag had Cuban cigars for Hannukah, not a $60,000 cash kickback for a $20 million union hedge fund investment.

So said a defense lawyer for former city jail-union boss Norman Seabrook Tuesday during summations at Seabrook’s Manhattan federal court bribery trial, telling jurors star informant Jona Rechnitz falsely twisted an innocent holiday gift into the linchpin of an alleged payoff scheme.

“He created a crime to get himself out of trouble,” defense lawyer Paul Shechtman said during a full day of summations in the two-week trial. “If you’re Jona Rechnitz, you cut and paste to serve your purposes. If you’re Jona Rechnitz, you create history.”

Seabrook, 57, the once powerful head of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, is charged with bribery and conspiracy for allegedly taking cash in return for putting $20 million into co-defendant Murray Huberfeld’s hedge fund, Platinum Partners.

Rechnitz, 33, a real estate investor at the center of multiple federal probes of corruption in City Hall and the NYPD last year, testified that he wined and dined Seabrook on vacations and at cigar bars, and then was the bagman who delivered the bribe on Dec. 11, 2014, in a Ferragamo bag later found at Seabrook’s house.

He was targeted by the defense throughout trial, admitting links to two Ponzi schemes and an array of dishonest acts — lying to become a police chaplain and get a gun license, doctoring emails with Mayor Bill de Blasio — and character issues such as dressing as a pimp in blackface at Purim.

But prosecutors told jurors to focus on the tale of “greed” that brought Seabrook and Huberfeld, 57, together in a “simple quid pro quo,” and resist defense efforts to deflect attention to Rechnitz, who admitted to his own crimes as part of a plea deal.

“If this were a personality contest he’d be a loser,” said prosecutor Russell Capone. “If this were a morality contest he wouldn’t be allowed to participate. But it’s neither.”

Rechnitz testified that Seabrook expected a payoff of from $100,000 to $150,000, and he decided to hand it off in a pricey Ferragamo bag to soften the disappointment, and prosecutors said security video of him leaving his office with the bag on his way to see Seabrook corroborated the story.

But Shechtman said Rechnitz’s loose handling of the bag on the street in Midtown suggested it didn’t have $60,000 inside, and the story was inherently laughable.

“If you believe Jona, he is shorting Norman Seabrook $40,000 to $90,000,” the lawyer said, waving the bag at the jury. “‘But you know how I can make him happy, I can give him a man purse!’”

Another key piece of government evidence was a phony $60,000 invoice for New York Knicks tickets given to Huberfeld by Rechnitz. He testified it was cover for the payoff cash, but Shechtman said it was to cover up part of Rechnitz’s finder’s fee for getting Seabrook to invest from the IRS.

“He did it in perfect Jona fashion,” the Seabrook lawyer argued. “He got it so he wouldn’t have to pay taxes on it.”

Jury deliberations are expected to begin on Wednesday.