Top Adviser to New York City Mayor Resigns

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks at a media event after his meeting with border czar Tom Homan in New York City, on Dec. 12, 2024. Oliver Mantyk/Epoch Times

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, chief adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, has resigned from her position and may face a criminal indictment in the coming days following the seizure of her phones and an FBI raid of her Brooklyn home in September as part of an investigation into alleged conflicts of interest in the leasing of commercial properties.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has brought evidence to a grand jury concerning Lewis-Martin, whose friendship and political association with the mayor reportedly began in the mid-1980s.

In a statement, the mayor praised Lewis-Martin and her record of service, saying: “We’ve always talked about when this day would come, and while we’ve long planned for it, it is still hard to know that Ingrid won’t be right next door every day. I, and every New Yorker, owe her a debt of gratitude for her record of service to our city.”

Lewis-Martin is the latest high-ranking member of the embattled Adams administration to step down in recent months, amid an upcoming criminal trial, the possibility of further charges, and public calls for the mayor’s resignation.

The mayor faces trial in April 2025 on five charges alleging he took some $10 million of improper campaign donations through “straw donors” when running for mayor and accepted bribes from representatives of Turkey’s government in return for political favors.

The mayor has pleaded not guilty to the charges and said his dealings were aboveboard. At a Sept. 26 press conference after the unsealing of the indictment, he urged people to wait until they had reviewed all the evidence before making any judgment.

Lewis-Martin’s resignation is the latest blow to an administration that recently weathered the departure of its police commissioner, Edward Caban, on Sept. 12. Caban’s phone was also seized by investigators for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, who were looking into allegations of corruption related to dealings with nightclubs and bars in the area.

Members of the New York City Council, whose relationship with the mayor is often antagonistic, had called for Caban’s departure in the midst of the investigation.

Tom Donlon, a law enforcement veteran with experience in antiterrorism cases, took over as interim police commissioner.

Deputy Mayor Phillip Banks, New York Public Schools Chancellor David Banks, and the latter’s wife, Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, were also the subjects of a federal probe that involved confiscation of their phones and searches of their homes.

As the political turmoil and investigations widen, the mayor faces a crowded pool of primary challengers vying for a chance to unseat him in next year’s election.

At the end of October, Jim Walden, a former prosecutor and litigator who has represented powerful figures in New York politics, announced his entry into the primary race, where he will compete with Comptroller Brad Lander, former comptroller Scott Springer, state Sen. Jessica Ramos, hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, state assemblymen Michael Blake and Zohran Mamdani, and possibly other candidates who have not yet declared.

One of Walden’s legal clients is Joseph Jardin, chief of fire prevention in the New York City Fire Department, whom Adams allegedly pressured to fast-track fire safety approval for a consular building whose purported violations would have taken months if not years to address properly.

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.