A report from the New York Times sheds new light on the investigations surrounding Eric Adams’ City Hall, indicating that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is getting in on the act in addition to the federal inquiries already underway.
According to the report, the city’s Department of Investigations looking into the city’s leasing of commercial properties in conjunction with the DA’s office, headed by Alvin Bragg. Investigators appear to be focusing on Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the mayor’s Chief Advisor and longtime ally going back to his days as Brooklyn Borough President, as well as a handful of other people in her orbit working within City Hall or with business before the city. Authorities seized Lewis-Martin’s phone on September 27th in John F. Kennedy airport upon her return from a vacation to Japan, notifying her that her home was also being searched. She has also been served a federal grand jury subpoena.
Others traveling with Lewis-Martin at the time also had their phones seized, including Jesse Hamilton, a private broker appointed by Adams who manages New York City’s real estate holdings and leases, and Diana Boutross, a VP at the real estate brokerage firm Cushman and Wakefield. According to the Times, Lewis-Martin and Boutross are “close friends,” and Boutross manages a “lucrative” account for her firm that deals with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), which is run by Hamilton. Cushman has a contract with the city that started in September 2022 with an original amount of $40 million, having been paid $8.6 million as of last week.
Also present on the trip to Japan was Adam Clayton Powell IV, a city councilman turned registered lobbyist who met with Hamilton earlier this year to lobby him on behalf of his client, a Bronx construction firm. Contacted by THE CITY for comment, Powell stated that “nothing came out of the meeting. Japan was vacation, and everyone paid their way. We’ve been friends for many years.”
The apparent chumminess between private actors and city government officials has raised questions of conflict of interest. Lewis-Martin’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, roundly dismissed these concerns in a statement, calling the suspicions surrounding the vacation “baseless.” Aidala continued: “Ingrid Lewis-Martin has conducted herself at the highest level of ethical standards while serving this city, and in due time all the facts will come out and will be supported by evidence and demonstrate everything was done properly.” Appearing on her lawyer’s radio show after the raid and phone seizure, Lewis-Martin said “we are imperfect, but we’re not thieves.” She continued: “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 D.A.’s office to investigate us.”
The district attorney’s investigation is the fifth and only state-level investigation into City Hall, with three others being headed by the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, and another from the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.
