Manhattan DA seizes phones of Mayor Adams' top adviser, feds serve her a subpoena

Federal agents with the U.S. attorney's office of the Southern District of New York on Friday served Mayor Eric Adams’ chief adviser a subpoena, and the Manhattan district attorney's office took her phones, according to her attorney.

Officials searched the Brooklyn home of Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a longtime political consigliere to the mayor whose alliance with him goes back over four decades.

“She will cooperate fully with any and all investigations and Ms. Lewis is not the target of any case of which we are aware,” said attorney Arthur Aidala in a written statement to Gothamist.

Lewis-Martin had recently returned from a vacation in Japan and was expected to return to City Hall on Friday. Neither she nor the mayor's office immediately responded to requests for comment.

Aidala, her lawyer, hosts an online radio show and his star interview Friday night was Lewis-Martin who suggested in her appearance that the inquiries into the Adams administration were overblown.

“We're not thieves," she said. "I do believe that, in the end, the New York City public will see that we have not done anything illegal to the magnitude or scale that requires the federal government and the DA's office to investigate us."

She added: "I'm not angry with them. I respect them and I understand that they have to do their job."

Lewis-Martin and her attorney repeated professions of her innocence throughout the program and she said she had no involvement in Adams' campaign fundraising.

“If [the authorities] do their job with accuracy, they will see that I am not a target and I really don't have any information to provide based upon what we reviewed, because I really don't know what they're talking about,” said Lewis-Martin.

Aidala referred to the search as a “pain in the neck” for Lewis-Martin, adding, “I am confident that she's not going to be a target of any investigation."

In a five-count indictment unsealed on Thursday, Mayor Adams was accused of accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish officials. The charging document alleges that Adams received luxury hotel stays and flights to Turkey in exchange for political favors.

According to a copy of her daily calendar that Gothamist obtained through a Freedom of Information request, Lewis-Martin was scheduled to meet Reyhan Ozgur, the Turkish consul general at the time, for dinner at a building called the Turkish House on First Avenue on July 11, 2022.

Ozgur and the Turkish House figure prominently in the federal government’s case against Adams. Prosecutors accuse Adams of accepting travel perks in exchange for pressuring FDNY officials to ignore safety concerns and approve the building’s opening ahead of a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“You are Great Eric, we are so happy to hear that,” Ozgur texted Adams in response to his assistance, according to the indictment. “You are a true friend of Turkey."

Lewis-Martin was scheduled to meet with Rana Abbasova — Adams’ liaison to the Turkish community and, prosecutors say, a key conduit for illicit bribes in the corruption scheme — for dinner at a Brooklyn restaurant on April 5, 2023 and in her office on May 16, 2023.

The pair were also scheduled to meet with a high-ranking government official from Azerbaijan, a Turkish ally, on April 19, 2023.

The reason for the search is unclear, although there are at least four separate investigations into Adams and members of his inner circle. Adams appeared in court on Friday after he was charged with bribery and fraud this week.

Doug Cohen, a spokesperson for the Manhattan DA's office, declined to comment. The U.S. attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a call.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated which officials seized Lewis-Martin's phones.

This story has been updated to include additional details about Lewis-Martin's schedule and her appearance on her attorney's talk show.