A senior Eric Adams aide declares her innocence — and seemingly her guilt

NEW YORK — Just hours after criminal investigators met her at JFK airport to seize her phone — while other agents were raiding her Brooklyn house — a senior aide to Mayor Eric Adams made an unusual move: She went on her bombastic lawyer’s talk radio show to proclaim her innocence.

And seemingly her guilt.

The bizarre episode involving a woman Adams calls his sister — his chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin — encapsulated her unconventional, brazen style.

She didn’t rule out that she did something illegal. Instead she insisted it wasn’t anything too important.

“We are imperfect, but we’re not thieves,” Lewis-Martin said on air Friday night. “I do believe that in the end that 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.”

Her lawyer shrugged off what appeared to be an admission of guilt, however slight, as good radio.

“You know, she was brutally honest,” said Arthur Aidala, attorney to the political stars, including ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner and ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani — neither a stranger to scandal.

“She didn’t mean like, ‘we’re breaking the law, but not that bad.’ She just meant like nobody’s perfect,” Aidala added in an interview Tuesday with POLITICO, four days after her interview on his show aired. “Maybe they double parked where they shouldn’t have, or used a parking pass when they shouldn’t have. But nothing that would rise to the level of a federal indictment.”

That, however, is precisely where the mayor and his inner circle find themselves now. Adams was indicted last week in a federal case alleging bribery and illegal campaign contributions from the Turkish government. Other investigations are swirling around him and his top aides, leading to the resignation of four senior appointees.

Lewis-Martin has now been roped in too.

Investigators from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office greeted her at the airport Friday, seizing her phones, just as she was returning from an ill-timed vacation to Japan. Federal investigators from the Southern District of New York were also there to serve her a subpoena, Lewis-Martin explained live on air. At the same time, Bragg’s team was raiding her Brooklyn home, taking boxes marked “documents” and “electronics” out to a waiting vehicle.

All that put Lewis-Martin under a harsh spotlight she had been trying to avoid. Even before the probes into the mayor and his top aides, she has been a focal point of controversy and the subject of much hand-wringing both inside and outside Adams’ world.

She’s Adams’ id, an outspoken 63-year-old Black woman from the same Central Brooklyn streets Adams represented as a state Senator and as borough president. She’s a devoutly religious Christian chaplain, but just as likely to invoke God as she is to curse somebody out. She can be rough in her interactions, but glamorous in her appearance — a self-avowed fashionista who rocks fancy shoes, designer dresses and statement jewelry in a City Hall typically staid when it comes to attire. She even hosted a bipartisan fashion show at the mayor’s official residence in September, days after investigators took other top appointees’ phones.

She’s an operator who built up Adams political base, and now gets the phone calls from those supporters requesting help from City Hall. She’s also deeply protective of the mayor, and suspicious of others competing for primacy — leading to tension among the leaders of City Hall.

In spite of all that, the mayor has considered Lewis-Martin essential for nearly two decades. To understand him, it is essential to understand her.

“They are ride or die,” said a person who worked with Adams and Lewis-Martin and was granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. “It’s not a relationship that’s going to go away.”

Lewis-Martin met Adams 40 years ago, when he and her husband were in the police academy together. At the time, she was an educator who got involved with politics in a largely Caribbean part of Brooklyn — working with national figures like Attorney General Tish James and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in their earliest runs for local office. So when the cop Adams thought about running for state Senate, he tapped his friend Lewis-Martin to advise him.

She’s been his political right hand ever since, an operator in City Hall whose job is not to run any agencies, but to protect his political interests — and forcefully, if necessary.

“I’m not Michelle Obama. When they go low? We drill for oil. I’ll meet you down in the subbasement,” she said in a 2022 magazine profile . “I’m just honest.”

She openly slammed congestion pricing — “I think it sucks” — in contrast with the mayor’s lukewarm support for the plan to exact a toll on drivers coming into part of Manhattan. A proud driver in the transit-rich city where opposing cars is its own political movement, she has said she’s scarcely taken the subway in 40 years. She’s drawn the ire of anti-car advocates for repeatedly scaling down plans for bike lanes, busways and pedestrianization projects.

She has also tussled time and again with city and state lawmakers while pushing the mayor’s agenda in both City Hall and Albany. Her influence was felt in Adams’ efforts blasting the council for overreaching on a law requiring cops to report more information on low-level stops. She pushed city lawmakers to approve bulldog attorney Randy Mastro to lead the city’s Law Department as well. He pulled his name from consideration, after a disastrous nomination hearing.

"Ingrid is brutally honest and headstrong with her own personal set of facts. Once Ingrid has decided on that altered version of reality, nothing can change her mind,” said one council member, who was granted anonymity out of fear of reprisal. “And to Ingrid, the reality is Eric Adams walks on water and can do no wrong.”

But council members also know her as someone who can navigate the city’s sprawling bureaucracy and slash through red tape. She was a driving force behind the move to change trash collection in the city — the anti-rat initiative that’s become a widely praised bright spot in the administration — by helping to secure a deal with the influential building service workers union.

She’s done it all with flair and a pair of sharp elbows.

“As a Black woman, that’s daring,” said City Council Member Nantasha Williams, who has known Lewis-Martin for more than a decade. “In society, you’re taught to mute yourself, to conform, and she’s not that type of person. To be unapologetic about who she is. Take it or leave it.”

Lewis-Martin has made enemies — “she’s definitely one of the most polarizing people in politics,” Khari Edwards, a candidate for Brooklyn borough president, said about her in a 2022 interview. “Either you’re in or you’re out” — and people have urged the mayor for years to cut ties with her and find a more traditional adviser, one with less personality.

The mayor might have even considered it.

People who have worked with them describe the pair as fighting like a married couple. She might pull herself out of discussions on an issue completely, if she feels like the mayor isn’t listening to her. In a 2018 text message with his troubled mentee Lamor Whitehead, Adams said both he and Lewis-Martin had “anger management issues” and “need to grow up.”

But the texts, reported by the Daily News , also revealed her role protecting the mayor. Whitehead was angry that Lewis-Martin was keeping him from making money off a concert series hosted by Adams’ office. Her judgment seemed to be right — Whitehead was sentenced to nine years in prison on federal fraud charges this year.

Despite the ups and downs, Adams and Lewis-Martin are fiercely loyal to each other. While people in City Hall compete for the mayor’s attention – and to be the last one to talk to him before a decision is made – the 40-year-friendship with his chief adviser gives her a singular perch.

When the fraternal organization for Black police officers organized a rally for Adams on Tuesday, it was Lewis-Martin who led Adams down the steps of City Hall and through the crowd. Other top Adams appointees had been caught up in the investigations too, but it was only Lewis-Martin who stood next to him, grasping his hand, as the crowd lifted their hands and prayed over the pair.

“We are not only here for our mayor, we are also here for Sister Ingrid,” Sharonnie Perry, a minister, said by way of introduction.

Lewis-Martin said Friday she had been planning to leave City Hall and retire the second week in January, next year. But the mayor’s struggles may have changed her mind.

“With all of this stuff, I don’t see how that’s possible,” she said on Aidala’s show. “Because I’m going to be with my brother. Because I don’t believe that he has done anything.”

That Lewis-Martin earned the attention of criminal investigators didn’t come as a shock to political insiders, who have been whispering for months that they were surprised she hadn’t yet been caught up in any of the probes. She is the mayor’s protector and gatekeeper. And Adams is being accused of keeping his gate a little too open to favors.

Lewis-Martin said Friday the scrutiny made sense, given that she’s “a close confidant” to the mayor and the godmother of his campaign treasurer, Brianna Suggs, whose home was raided last year. Unlike Lewis-Martin, Suggs’ role is mentioned in the indictment.

Lewis-Martin declined to comment for this article, referring POLITICO to Aidala.

The radio show host-lawyer said it isn’t clear exactly what either office is investigating regarding Lewis-Martin, but that federal prosecutors have assured him she is not a target — terminology that may not be as meaningful as lawyers suggest.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment or to confirm the raid and seizure of the phone. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams’ office also declined to comment.

But prosecutors on Adams’ case Wednesday made it clear they’re still digging on the Turkish bribery case. A superseding indictment is “possible” and it’s “likely” additional defendants will be charged.

Lewis-Martin’s official schedules show meetings with Turkish representatives, both when she worked alongside Adams as Brooklyn borough president and when they were in City Hall.

Lewis-Martin is also close with Winnie Greco, the special adviser to Adams whose home was raided by federal investigators in February. She hasn’t been charged.

With all the investigations swirling, Adams has been disciplined in his speaking. A campaign mantra has become his answer when people ask how he can govern under indictment. “Stay focused, no distractions and grind.”

Lewis-Martin gave her honest take on the radio show: it’s just a line.

“We try hard to live up to that. But it’s difficult. You know, we do get distracted. It’s hard sometimes to focus,” she said. “But one thing we always do, and will continue to do is to grind.”