Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a powerful City Hall official and top adviser to Mayor Eric Adams, is expected to be indicted in Manhattan as soon as Monday, The Post has learned.
Multiple sources close to Lewis-Martin said Sunday that she and her legal team were preparing to bring criminal charges from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office this week, resulting in his sudden departure from administration Over the weekend.
It was not clear what specific charges the grand jury was expected to hand, however, as Manhattan prosecutors and city investigators are investigating the top aide’s alleged role in leasing commercial properties to his close friends.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the Division of Investigation declined to comment. Lewis-Martin and his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, could not immediately be reached Sunday afternoon.
Expected charges added to Adams Legal problems due to multiple criminal investigations He is among his inner circle as he faces unprecedented federal bribery and corruption charges.
For years, Lewis-Martin has served as Adams’s closest ally and – as once told New York Times – Mayer’s “God-appointed sister.”
The mayor and his top advisers have been at odds for several months, with sources telling The Post that the two have barely spoken. Sources said it resulted from the termination of controversial top advisers who were close associates of Lewis-Martin and were the subject of federal raids.
Sources said Lewis-Martin brought with her two aides, Timothy Pearson and Vinnie Greco, two longtime friends of hers who typically don’t get through the vetting process to get involved in city government. Used to get.
According to sources, despite mounting pressure from those inside City Hall and in the governor’s office who were pressuring the mayor to clean house, she repeatedly went to the mat to defend her embattled colleagues.
As Adams’ top adviser at City Hall, Lewis-Martin earned a reputation as a fiery and controversial advocate for the mayor — and she wasn’t shy about getting dirty.
“I’m not Michelle Obama,” she told City State. “When do they go down? We drill for oil. I’ll meet you down in the basement.”
But Lewis-Martin remained publicly untouched by the federal raids that trapped many of her City Hall colleagues for most of September — at least until she returned from a vacation in Japan.
Officials from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and federal prosecutors were waiting for Lewis-Martin on September 27 when his plane landed at JFK Airport.
Sources said DA investigators took Lewis-Martin’s phone, while the feds sent him a subpoena demanding his testimony as a witness in the corruption case against Adams.
The purpose of the phone seizure remained unclear until The New York Times informed Manhattan prosecutors had launched an investigation into City Hall’s leasing of commercial properties.
Manhattan DA investigators also seized the phones of four other people, including Jesse Hamilton, the city’s top real estate executive, and Diana Boutros, a private broker involved in city leases, The Post confirmed.
The group consists of all close friends and political associates who traveled to Japan together.
Just hours after leaving the airport, Lewis-Martin took the surprise step of appearing on his lawyer Arthur Aidala’s radio show.
“We are imperfect, but we are not thieves, and I am confident that in the end, the New York City public will see that we have not done anything illegal on the magnitude or scale that requires the federal government and the DA’s office to investigate us. To do,” He said,
When Adams was pressed this week about Lewis-Martin’s trip to Japan and the phone seizure, he repeatedly argued that he did not monitor his top executives’ vacation plans.
“I didn’t know where Ingrid was going,” he said. “She doesn’t tell me when she’s taking vacations or where she’s going.”
She abruptly resigned from City Hall on Sunday — about a month before she was scheduled to leave office — telling The Post she was retiring.
Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer, Alex Oliveira And Matt Troutman
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