New York City – corruption doesn’t go away
Just in case we thought that corruption in New York city was gone, since Mayor Eric Adam’s pay-for-play corruption dismissals earlier this year, there are new allegations against Eric Adams’ previous chief advisor, Ms. Lewis-Martin. The New York Times, as well as other media outlets, have described in clear detail all the corruption that surrounds the Adams administration. The present accusations are classic corruption schemes, and ” the Manhattan district attorney’s office painted a damning picture of a city for sale.
In exchange for cash, crab cakes, home renovations and even an appearance on a popular television show, Ms. Lewis-Martin fast-tracked approvals from city agencies, steered contracts to a favored developer and tried to kill a project to build protected bike lanes in Brooklyn, prosecutors said.” It is good to see that the prosecutors can move ahead with this case, even if this case could have included Mayor Adams.
Why do we care at this time? As New York is one of the influential cities in the world, ongoing corruption is worth discussing. The dismissal of Mayor Adams corruption allegations under federal law caused several prosecutors to leave in protest based upon what they saw as a corrupt decision by the Federal government. Thankfully this did not stop local prosecutors from doing their job. As always, it’s good to see corrupt individuals being brought to justice, and we hope that as the Trump administration won’t view this case as useful, so that they won’t receive any benefit to dismissing these charges, this time. The ongoing frustration regarding corruption at the federal level gives us hope that cases like these will be brought on the state levels and city levels. This should reassure the people in New York, and across other states, that the rule of law still works, and that there are public servants who are still fighting against corruption.
Links:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/nyregion/ingrid-lewis-martin-corruption-indictment.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/21/us/ingrid-lewis-martin-nyc-indictments