Mayor Eric Adams’ former chief adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin said Monday that she expects to be indicted in the coming days.
“I am being falsely accused,” Lewis-Martin said at a cramped press conference at her lawyer Arthur Aidala’s Midtown office. “I’ve worked in government for over 35 years. … I have never taken any gifts, money, anything.”
The announcement that she expects to be charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office came one day after Lewis-Martin, one of Adams’ closest confidants, abruptly resigned. She is the latest — and arguably most integral — member of Adams’ close inner circle to leave City Hall since the mayor’s indictment on federal corruption charges in September.
Lewis-Martin, like the mayor, maintains that she is not guilty.
“This is about politics and not about justice,” Aidala said Monday.
Lewis-Martin’s looming indictment is being pursued by state, rather than federal, prosecutors. On Monday, Aidala said that the Manhattan DA’s case was based on phone and email records the office had seized — which he claimed were misrepresented.
Hours after Lewis-Martin resigned on Sunday, the New York Times first reported that Manhattan prosecutors had presented a grand jury with evidence that could lead to her indictment.