Agents Seize Phone From Adams’s Top Adviser and Subpoena Her

Investigators on Friday seized the phones of Mayor Eric Adams’s chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, searched her Brooklyn home and served her with a grand jury subpoena, her lawyer said.

“Ingrid Lewis-Martin has been served with a subpoena from the Southern District of New York and her phones were given to the New York County District Attorney’s Office,” the lawyer, Arthur L. Aidala, said in a statement. “She will cooperate fully with any and all investigations,” he said, adding that Ms. Lewis-Martin was “not the target of any case of which we are aware.”

Ms. Lewis-Martin was served with the subpoena and told about the search on Friday when she landed at Kennedy International Airport, having returned from a vacation in Japan, and was met by two sets of investigators, one state and one federal.

The actions appear to be tied to two different investigations, though information about the morning’s events and the nature of the state inquiry was preliminary. Several people with knowledge of the matter confirmed that the two sets of investigators met Ms. Lewis-Martin at the airport, served her with the subpoena and seized her phone.

The developments came just hours before Mr. Adams was arraigned in federal court in Lower Manhattan on charges of bribery and wire fraud. The indictment from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York accuses the mayor of soliciting and receiving illegal campaign donations from foreign nationals, and accepting bribes in exchange for official acts. Mr. Adams has pleaded not guilty.

Ms. Lewis-Martin, who is considered the mayor’s second-in-command, has been friends with Mr. Adams for roughly 40 years and has described herself as “his sister ordained by God.” She has been his top aide since 2006, when she managed his successful campaign for a State Senate seat.