The wait is over.

We will finally hear from Kosta Diamantis on Thursday.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s former budget deputy is on trial for bribery and extortion, accused of shaking down contractors for multimillion-dollar contracts.

Before the government wrapped up its case on Wednesday, jurors heard Diamantis’ interviews with the FBI – where he said his accusers are “full of s**t.”

Diamantis is eager to tell his side of the story.

“You’ve got to wait for that,” he told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Bridgeport. “That’s tomorrow and the day after.”

Diamantis isn’t talking yet, but jurors heard his voice in two FBI interviews from late 2023. Diamantis told agents that he never accepted bribes from Antonietta Roy, owner of Construction Advocacy Professionals (CAP) – and denied pressuring Tolland school leaders to hire her.

Diamantis: “She got it on her own.”

Last week, Roy testified that she hired Diamantis’ daughter Anastasia “to keep him happy” and also paid him – once on the side the road.

“I felt like a drug dealer,” she told jurors.

CAP was paid $2.2 million to serve as a construction administrator for projects in Tolland and Hartford. Tolland’s school superintendent told jurors that Diamantis told him to “just get out of the way” and hire Roy – even though the district already had someone doing that work.

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

But in an FBI interview, Diamantis said Willett was “full of s**t.”

A veteran consultant at the Office of School Construction and Grants Review – which Diamantis headed – testified on Wednesday that Roy was useless on construction projects.

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

Over the past week-and-a-half, jurors heard from several contractors, plus they’ve seen hundreds of texts and e-mails referencing alleged payments from CAP and Acranom Masonry to Diamantis.

Acranom’s owner and former vice president, along with Roy, all pleaded guilty to bribing Diamantis earlier this year.

Diamantis faces 21 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to federal agents. Prosecutors agreed to drop one count of false statements on Wednesday, but Judge Stefan Underhill refused to dismiss one of the conspiracy counts.

What should we expect when Diamantis takes the stand on Thursday? His attorney gave a cagey answer.

“In the great debate between thin crust and thick crust pizza, I prefer thin crust,” said defense attorney Norm Pattis. “See you tomorrow.”

Pattis plans to call Anastasia Diamantis first, then her father will take the stand for the rest of the day and part of Friday.

One witness jurors will not hear from is Lamont. The judge ruled that his testimony is not relevant in the case.

Pattis has suggested that the governor pressured Diamantis to keep school construction projects “under budget” any way he could.

“He wasn’t aggressive for the sake of shaking people down. He was doing the governor’s bidding. I think that's relevant,” Pattis told reporters on Tuesday. “Mr. Diamantis was brought in to upset the apple cart – to get an inefficient project, and set of projects, under control."

Jurors could begin deliberations as early as Tuesday, both sides told the judge.