Ingrid Lewis Martin, a feared City Hall official and a top adviser to Mayor Eric Adams, is scheduled to be arraigned in Manhattan as soon as Monday, the Post reported.
People close to Lewis Martin said Sunday that she and her legal team are preparing for criminal charges to be filed this week by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which led to her abrupt resignation from the administration over the weekend. He said he was connected.
It's unclear what specific charges the grand jury plans to hand down, but Manhattan prosecutors and city investigators are investigating the aide's alleged role in leasing commercial properties to close friends. There is.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Bureau of Investigation declined to comment. Lewis-Martin and her attorney, Arthur Aidala, could not immediately be reached Sunday afternoon.
The anticipated charges add to legal troubles as Adams faces unprecedented federal bribery and corruption charges and his aides are embroiled in multiple criminal investigations.
For many years, Lewis Martin served as Adams' closest ally. it was once said The New York Times – The Mayor's “God-Ordained Sister.”
The mayor and his top advisers have remained silent in recent months, with sources telling the Post they have had little conversation. Officials pointed to the fallout from the controversial firing of a top adviser who was a close ally of Lewis Martin and the subject of a federal investigation.
Officials said Lewis-Martin brought along two close aides, her longtime friends Timothy Pearson and Winnie Greco, who would not normally pass the vetting process to join city government. He said he came.
Despite mounting pressure from inside City Hall and from officials in the governor's office urging the mayor to clean up the city, she repeatedly took to the mat and spoke to her embattled aides, officials said. It is said that he protected it.
As the Addams' top advisor at City Hall, Lewis-Martin had well earned a reputation as the mayor's fiercely controversial spokesperson, but she wasn't shy about getting dirty.
“I'm not Michelle Obama,” she said said city and state. “What if they go low? We drill for oil. Meet us underground.”
But for much of September, at least until he returned from a vacation in Japan, Lewis Martin remained publicly unscathed by the federal raid that implicated many of his colleagues at City Hall. .
On September 27, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and federal prosecutors waited for Lewis Martin's plane to land at JFK Airport.
Sources said DA agents confiscated Lewis Martin's cell phone, while federal authorities served her with a subpoena to testify as a witness in the corruption case against Adams.
The purpose of the phone seizure remained unclear until the New York Times reported reported Manhattan prosecutors have launched an investigation into City Hall's leasing of commercial real estate.
Manhattan DA investigators also seized the cellphones of four other people, including Jesse Hamilton, the city's top real estate official, and Diana Boutros, a private broker involved in city leases, the Post confirmed.
The group are all close friends and political allies who have traveled to Japan together.
Just hours after leaving the airport, Lewis Martin took the surprising step of appearing on attorney Arthur Aidala's radio show.
“We are imperfect, but we are not thieves, and I believe that ultimately the people of New York City will understand that we have not done anything illegal on the scale or scale that the federal government and the Attorney General's Office are demanding.” “To investigate us.'' she said.
When pressed this week about Lewis Martin's trip to Japan and the seizure of his phone, Adams repeatedly claimed he was unaware of executives' vacation plans.
“I didn't know where Ingrid was going,” he said. “She won't tell me when she's going on vacation or where she's going.”
She abruptly resigned from City Hall on Sunday, about a month before she was scheduled to leave, telling the Post she was retiring.
Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer, alex oliveira and matt trautman
