By JIM MUSTIAN, JACK BROOK and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Related Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal grand jury indicted New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Friday after an extended corruption investigation.
Cantrell’s lawyer, Eddie Castaing, confirmed to The Related Press that an indictment was returned, and her title was learn aloud by a federal Justice of the Peace choose as a defendant. The costs weren’t instantly identified.
The indictment is the end result of a long-running federal investigation into Cantrell, the primary feminine mayor within the metropolis’s 300-year historical past.
Cantrell, who’s term-limited, will depart workplace in January. The Democrat has clashed with Metropolis Council members throughout a turbulent second time period and survived a recall effort in 2022.
She hasn’t despatched out a message on her official feed on X, previously often known as Twitter, since July 15, when she touted that town was experiencing historic declines in crime.
As Cantrell heads into her last months in workplace, she’s alienated former confidants and supporters, and her civic profile has receded. Her early achievements have been eclipsed by self-inflicted wounds and bitter feuds with a hostile metropolis council, political observers say. The mayor’s position has weakened following voter-approved adjustments to town’s constitution meant to curb her authority.
Cantrell and her remaining allies allege that she’s been unfairly focused as Black girl and held to a special commonplace than male officers, her govt powers sabotaged. Earlier this yr, Cantrell stated she’s confronted “very disrespectful, insulting, in some circumstances type of unimaginable” remedy.
Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
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