Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the mayor’s chief adviser and longtime confidante, recounted on live radio how, fresh off a flight from Japan, she was intercepted by both state and federal investigators at JFK Airport and maintained that she — nor Mayor Adams — did anything wrong.
“We’re not thieves,” Lewis-Martin said during the appearance on a radio show hosted by her attorney Arthur Aidala. “And 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 office to investigate us.”
The federal raid on Lewis-Martin was linked to the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s investigation into Adams’ ties to Turkey, sources told the Daily News — at the core of the charges Adams was arraigned on Friday.
The probe kicked off last year when feds raided the Crown Heights home of Suggs, Adams’ chief fundraiser for his 2021 campaign. The raid was part of a federal corruption investigation examining whether the campaign conspired with the Turkish government to funnel foreign cash into the campaign using straw donors, according to a search warrant reported by the New York Times.
Lewis-Martin said that she doesn’t know “anything” and has done “nothing,” adding that she considers Suggs a goddaughter.
Lewis-Martin said on-air that doing her job during the difficult times “hasn’t been easy.”
“We try hard to live up to that,” Lewis-Martin said, directly contradicting Adams’ “stay focused and grind” motto. “But it’s difficult. You know, we do get distracted. It’s hard sometimes to focus, but one thing we always do and will continue to do, is to grind, because we are committed public servants, and we will get the job done.”
She described how “very polite” agents approached her at the airport after she landed, admitting that she wasn’t quite friendly towards them.
“I got a little vociferous,” Lewis-Martin admitted, adding that they then told her she would be arrested if she kept it up. After that, she said, she apologized.