Kosta Diamantis has waited four years to tell his story.

On Thursday, Gov. Ned Lamont’s former budget deputy admitted that he accepted at least $70,000 from construction contractors – but told jurors it was a networking “fee,” not a bribe.

Diamantis took the witness stand with his future hanging in the balance. The 69-year-old faces up to two decades in prison for 21 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators.

“Torture, hell,” he said of the past several years. “My family – myself – have been dragged through the mud.”

Diamantis oversaw hundreds of millions of dollars as head the state’s Office of School Construction Grants and Review. He insisted that he did not accept bribes from two different companies – Acranom Masonry and Construction Advocacy Professionals (CAP) – in exchange for lucrative school construction jobs.

Instead, Diamantis said the payments from Acranom were “fees” to introduce the company to D’Amato Construction, a well-known general contractor.

“I created an introduction between [Acranom vice president] John Duffy and D’Amato Construction … to facilitate a relationship between Acranom and D’Amato Construction,” Diamantis testified.

And he said it was Duffy who crafted the deal – not the other way around.

“I arranged to take a fee,” the former school construction chief told the jury. “The fee arrangement – that was decided by John – was the amount of $70,000 to be divided … by Johnny and myself.”

Was the consulting arrangement legal?

Diamantis said he checked ethics codes and case law beforehand, including a one involving former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. The U.S. Supreme Court vacated McDonnell’s corruption conviction because his activities didn’t constitute an “official act.”

Diamantis’ attorney said the same principle applies here.

“It’s not against the law to arrange a meeting,” he said. “It’s not against the law to broker a connection with someone, as long as you don’t take anything in exchange for it.”

Diamantis’ story is very different than what jurors have heard – and seen – so far.

Duffy and his former boss, Sal Monarca, testified that the payments were bribes for Diamantis to intervene in a $300,000 payment dispute with the Hartford School Building Committee – and help secure another $3 million contract.

Monarca said one of those payments happened in the bathroom at the upscale Capital Grille in Hartford – something Diamantis denied on the stand.

"Without Kosta’s involvement or influence, we probably wouldn’t have got that job,” Duffy told jurors last week.

Diamantis also attempted to explain pages of text messages, and a voice mail, where he demanded payments from Duffy. In one text from 2019, Diamantis wrote: “I am very good at what I do … And I always usually work at 5% of total just FYI.”

But Thursday, Diamantis insisted that he had no authority to pick sub-contractors – and never threatened to pull state funding if school leaders didn’t hire them.

“There’s no taking a grant away from anybody,” he said.

He did acknowledge being “frustrated” at late payments because he needed money for child support payments, as well as private school tuition and wedding expenses for his daughters.

Diamantis also insisted he never pressured CAP to hire his daughter. CAP owner Antonietta Roy testified that she hired Anastasia Diamantis – at a $45/hour salary plus bonuses – to “keep him happy.”

Roy also said she once paid Diamantis cash out of her car window on the side of the road.

“I felt like a drug dealer,” Roy testified last week.

Tolland and Hartford school officials testified that Diamantis pushed them to hire CAP as a construction administrator, even though others were already doing that work.

“I didn’t feel like I had any practical choice,” Tolland superintendent Dr. Walter Willett testified. “There are people [on our staff] who felt like they could probably do that work.”

Diamantis’ own former employee said Roy was useless on projects.

“I’m not the one to teach you about school construction,” OSCGR grants administrator Michelle Dixon told jurors. “You’re supposed to come to the table qualified.”

But Diamantis insisted he brought Roy to address “shortcomings” and delays.

“Contractors love nothing better than a project being delayed,” he said. “Everybody gets a piece of that.”

Diamantis returns to the witness stand on Friday morning, where he will face tougher questions from federal prosecutors.

From there, Pattis could call representatives from D’Amato Construction.

On Thursday, former Hartford mayor – and current congressional candidate – Luke Bronin asked a judge to quash his subpoena to testify. Pattis withdrew a similar subpoena for Lamont.

“Like Gov. Ned Lamont, I don’t really have anything to say that’s relevant,” Bronin said in a statement to NBC Connecticut. "I'd rather not spend a day sitting around in the courthouse in Bridgeport for no reason."

The trial could conclude by Tuesday.