NEW YORK– A former top aide to New York Mayor Eric Adams is expected to face corruption charges in court Thursday in the latest blow to an administration beset by searches, resignations and the mayor’s own indictment.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who resigned On Sunday, Adams’ chief adviser and one of the most powerful officials at City Hall is expected to be arraigned Thursday afternoon in state court in Manhattan, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the case and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. The specific charges against Lewis-Martin have not been publicly announced and remain unclear.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the city’s watchdog commissioner, Jocelyn Strauber, have scheduled a news conference Thursday afternoon. The subject was not announced.
Bragg and Strauber’s offices investigated Lewis-Martin. Phone messages seeking comment were left for spokespeople for both.
Lewis-Martin’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, told reporters this week that she was expected to face criminal charges in connection with alleged improper gifts.
Lewis-Martin said Monday that she was “falsely accused” and that she “did not make any prior arrangements to accept gifts or money, or to have gifts or money given to a family member or friend so that I could do my job.” ”
The charges against Lewis-Martin come as the Adams administration did hampered by criminal investigation.
Adams, a Democrat, has been one himself in charge of conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery in an unrelated federal case set to go to trial next April. He has pleaded not guilty.
Lewis-Martin, 63, has been one of the mayor’s closest confidantes throughout his political career. He held senior positions under Adams as he rose through the ranks of government in New York over the past nearly two decades. Her most recent position as Adams’ chief adviser made her one of City Hall’s top officials.
She has been targeted by investigators since at least September, when federal prosecutors and prosecutors in Manhattan began working met her at an airport in New York when she left Japan. At the time, federal prosecutors served her a subpoena, while Manhattan prosecutors seized her phones and searched her home.
Hours after that search, Lewis-Martin appeared on a radio program hosted by Aidala to discuss the investigation, telling her attorney, “I truly believe that the New York City public will ultimately see that we have not done anything illegal to the extent or scale that requires the federal government and the district attorney’s office to investigate us.”
Aidala told reporters Monday that he believed Manhattan prosecutors were charging Lewis-Martin to get her to cooperate against Adams. At an unrelated news conference that day, Adams described Lewis-Martin as an “old friend and sister.”
Adams was accused in September of accepting luxury travel benefits and illegal campaign contributions from a Turkish official and other foreigners seeking to buy his influence.
The investigation into Adams became public late last year after federal agents searched the house from his top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs. Lewis-Martin has called Suggs her goddaughter.
Since then, the Adams administration has been plagued by a series of searches and seizures by investigators, leading to the resignation of top officials, including his police commissioner, chancellor of schoolsseveral deputy mayors And its director of Asian affairs.