Mayor Adams and his campaign gave no indication Monday that his longtime confidante, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, would be asked to stop her volunteer work on his re-election campaign despite a fresh round of corruption charges against her.
“The mayor welcomes the support of all New Yorkers,” Todd Shapiro, the mayor’s campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. “Ingrid is not a City Hall staffer or campaign employee. —what she does on her own time is her business,”
Earlier Monday, Adams, who has defended Lewis-Martin since the new corruption charges, declined to say during a campaign press conference on the steps of City Hall whether she is still working on his re-election bid.
“Last week, I spoke about the case,” the mayor said. “That’s a wrap.”
Lewis-Martin, a longtime friend of the mayor who he routinely calls his “sister,” has worked on the mayor’s re-election efforts for months, including taking what appeared to be a leadership role in helping organizing campaign volunteers, the Daily News previously reported.
Last week, Lewis-Martin was hit with a second round of charges, with the Manhattan District Attorney alleging she took at least $75,000 in bribes in exchange for doling out various favors for political allies, such as steering migrant shelter contracts to preferred vendors, derailing a bike lane project in Brooklyn and fast-tracking building permits for a Queens karaoke bar.
The campaign’s statements about Lewis-Martin mark a different tack from last week’s announcement that Winnie Greco, a former advisor who recently came until scrutiny for giving a reporter a potato chip bag stuffed with cash, was suspended from doing any further volunteer work on the campaign.
“We are shocked by these reports,” Shapiro said last week. “Mayor Adams had no prior knowledge of this matter. He has always demanded the highest ethical and legal standards, and his sole focus remains on serving the people of New York City with integrity.”
Greco, who was ensnared in a federal probe prior to the potato chip incident, has not been been charged with any wrongdoing.
Jesse Hamilton, a top real estate official for the city, was indicted along with with Lewis-Martin and resigned hours after he was charged.
The new indictments come on top of a separate set of criminal charges last December alleging Lewis-Martin took another $100,000 in bribes. Lewis-Martin resigned as chief adviser to the mayor just before that first corruption indictment.
At a press conference last week folowing the indctments, Adams praised his longtime friend.
“Ingrid is like a sister to me. I love Ingrid… I have known her to be a hardworking, dedicated member of city government for 40 years,” Adams said on Friday.
