Adams’ top aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin expected to be indicted as probes swirl: sources

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a formidable City Hall official and top consigliere of Mayor Eric Adams, is expected to be indicted in Manhattan as soon as Monday, The Post has learned.

Multiple sources close to Lewis-Martin said Sunday that she and her legal team were bracing for the criminal charges to emerge this week from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, leading to her sudden departure from the administration over the weekend.

It was unclear what specific charge or charges the grand jury were expected to hand up, however, the Manhattan prosecutors and city investigators have been probing the top aide’s alleged role in leasing commercial properties to her close friends.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Department of Investigation declined to comment. Lewis-Martin and her attorney Arthur Aidala could not be immediately reached Sunday afternoon.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin is one of Eric Adams’ longest advisers. Paul Martinka

The expected charges add to Adams’ legal problems as multiple criminal investigations hem in his inner circle as he faces unprecedented federal bribery and corruption charges.

For years, Lewis-Martin has served as Adams’ closest ally and — as she once told the New York Times — the mayor’s “sister ordained by God.”

The mayor and his top adviser have been on the outs for months now, with sources telling The Post the two have barely spoken. Sources pinned their fallout on the termination of controversial top advisers who were close allies of Lewis-Martin and the subject of federal raids.

Lewis-Martin had brought on those two aides, Timothy Pearson and Winnie Greco, two longtime friends of hers who wouldn’t have typically made it through the vetting process to get into city government, sources said.

She then repeatedly went to the mat to protect the embattled aides despite mounting pressure from inside City Hall and those in the governor’s office who were pushing for the mayor to clean house, according to sources.

As the Adams’ top adviser in City Hall, Lewis-Martin more than earned a reputation as a fierce and contentious advocate for the mayor — and she wasn’t shy about getting dirty.

“I’m not Michelle Obama,” she told City & State. “When they go low? We drill for oil. I’ll meet you down in the subbasement.”

But Lewis-Martin had remained publicly unscathed by federal raids that ensnared many of her City Hall colleagues for much of September — at least until she returned from a vacation in Japan.

Officials with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and federal prosecutors were waiting Sept. 27 for Lewis-Martin when her plane landed at JFK Airport.

DA investigators took Lewis-Martin’s phone, while the feds slapped her with a subpoena seeking her testimony as a witness in the corruption case against Adams, sources had said.

The phone seizure’s purpose remained unclear until the New York Times reported that Manhattan prosecutors had opened a probe in City’s Hall’s leasing of commercial properties.

Manhattan DA investigators also seized the phones of four others, including top city real estate official Jesse Hamilton and Diana Boutross, a private broker involved in city leases, The Post confirmed.

The group are all close friends and political allies who had traveled to Japan together.

Mere hours after the airport, Lewis-Martin made the stunning step of appearing on her lawyer Arthur Aidala’s radio show.

“We are imperfect, but we’re not thieves, 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,” she said.

Adams, when pressed on Lewis-Martin’s travel to Japan and phone seizure this week, repeatedly contended he didn’t keep track of his top officials’ vacation plans.

“I didn’t know where Ingrid was going,” he said. “She doesn’t tell me when she’s taking a vacation and where she’s going.”

She abruptly resigned from City Hall Sunday — about a month before she was scheduled to quit — telling The Post she was retiring.

Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer, Alex Oliveira and Matt Troutman