Eric Adams aide faces corruption charges amid New York City mayoral race | Corruption News

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office in the United States has unveiled four indictments against a high-level associate of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, adding to the legal jeopardy his administration faces during a tight election season.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, her son Glenn Martin II and seven other co-defendants were charged on Thursday for what the prosecutor’s office called a “wide-ranging series of bribery conspiracies”.

Nicknamed the “Lioness of City Hall”, Lewis-Martin formerly served as a chief advisor to Adams. But she resigned in December amid a corruption investigation.

In a statement, District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Lewis-Martin of putting her personal profit over the needs of New York City residents.

“We allege that Ingrid Lewis-Martin engaged in classic bribery conspiracies that had a deep and wide-ranging impact on City government,” Bragg said in the statement.

“Lewis-Martin consistently overrode the expertise of public servants so she could line her own pockets. While she allegedly received more than $75,000 in bribes and an appearance on a TV show, every other New Yorker lost out.”

Thursday’s indictments were the latest to roil Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence in New York City.

Since taking office in 2022, Adams, a former police officer, has faced a cascade of scandals that eroded his public support.

That, in turn, has proven to be fodder for his opponents as Adams seeks re-election in the 2025 mayoral race, scheduled for November.

The race is seen as a litmus test for the Democratic Party, and US President Donald Trump, a Republican, has voiced support for Adams and opposition to the Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani.

Inside the scandals

Lewis-Martin is one of several top Adams aides who have resigned over the past year in the face of corruption scandals.

Shortly after her departure from the Adams administration in December, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office issued an initial indictment against her and her son, a music producer who works under the name Suave Luciano.

It alleged they “traded on the access and influence of her position in exchange for more than $100,000 in checks and cash” from real estate developpers.

Lewis-Martin and her son were accused of accepting the money in exchange for expediting the approval of construction permits and helping with rejected applications.

Those decisions, the indictment said, were made “without regard to safety considerations or the Department of Buildings’ expertise”.

In the latest series of indictments, Lewis-Martin and Martin II face similar bribery charges. In one case, the district attorney accuses them of fast-tracking a residential renovation plan at the Department of Buildings in exchange for nearly $10,000 worth of free catering, including crab cakes, octopus and salmon dishes.

In another instance, Lewis-Martin is accused of having “interfered” with the Department of Transportation’s plans to install bike lanes on a New York City boulevard, in an effort to please the owners of a nearby company, Broadway Stages, which offers services for TV and film productions.

In return, the production company owners allegedly gave Lewis-Martin a speaking role on the TV show Godfather of Harlem, as well as money and catering services.

A third indictment claims Lewis-Martin worked to “steer contracts” for asylum seeker shelters to an associate’s “preferred property owners”.

Lewis-Martin and her son have previously denied the allegations against them, and their legal representatives have dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

The string of indictments follows yet another scandal earlier this week involving another close advisor to Adams, Winnie Greco.

The local media outlet The City reported that Greco passed its reporter an envelope of money hidden in a bag of sour-cream-and-onion chips, and she was subsequently suspended from Adams’s campaign.

Adams under the spotlight

Adams himself has come under scrutiny for bribery and campaign finance-related offenses.

In September 2024, the US Department of Justice, under then-President Joe Biden, revealed a criminal indictment against the New York City mayor, making him the first sitting mayor of the city to face federal charges.

Prosecutors claimed Adams had “abused his position as this City’s highest elected official” by taking bribes and soliciting illegal campaign contributions.

In one case, the prosecutors said Adams had pushed the New York City Fire Department to allow the Turkish consulate to open an office in a local high rise without a fire inspection, so that it could be ready for a visit from Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In exchange, Adams allegedly received free or reduced-cost travel on Turkey’s national airline, luxury hotel stays and free food and entertainment while on a visit to the country.

The indictment also accused Adams of soliciting “straw” contributions for his election bid, whereby donors bypass campaign finance laws by funnelling their money through another person instead.

Adams has maintained his innocence and called the prosecution an attempt to derail his re-election hopes.

Though he ran in 2021 as a centrist Democrat, he has since rebranded himself as an independent and grown closer to President Trump, a Republican.

Adams has met several times with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, and in the lead-up to Trump’s second inauguration in January, he travelled to Mar-a-Lago in south Florida to meet with the soon-to-be president.

An indictment’s reversal

Shortly after taking office, Trump’s Justice Department ordered the federal charges against Adams to be dropped. Several career prosecutors resigned in protest.

One of those prosecutors, Hagan Scotten, published a strongly worded letter upon his departure. “I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion,” Scotten said. “But it was never going to be me.”

Eventually the motion was filed, and a judge in New York agreed to toss the case in April, on the basis that he could not compel prosecutors to act.

But that judge, Dale Ho, expressed scepticism about the motives that prompted the Justice Department to abandon its case.

“Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” Ho wrote in his decision.

Since that controversy, relations between Trump and Adams have grown strained, particularly in the wake of controversial immigration arrests at New York City courthouses.

But Trump has remained vocal in his opposition to Mamdani, Adams’s leading competitor in the 2025 mayoral race.

“ We have a communist running for the mayor of New York, and I wish him well,” Trump said on August 13, referring to Mamdani. “I may have to deal with him.”