NEW ORLEANS – A federal grand jury indicted New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Friday after a long corruption investigation.
Eddie Castaing, the attorney for Cantrell, confirmed to The Associated Press that she was indicted, and a federal magistrate judge announced her name as a defendant. Though the specific charges were not immediately available, a federal news conference was planned for later in the day.
The indictment is the culmination of a long-running federal investigation into Cantrell, the first female mayor in the City’s 300-year history.
Cantrell, unable to run again due to term limits, is set to leave her position in January. Throughout her second term, she has faced conflicts with City Council members and successfully resisted a recall attempt in 2022.
Her official account on X, formerly Twitter, hasn’t been updated since July 15, when she highlighted a significant decrease in crime rates within the city.
Approaching the end of her term, Cantrell has lost connections with previous allies and supporters, and her prominence has diminished. While her early successes were overshadowed by personal errors and intense disputes with an adversarial city council, political analysts note, her position was weakened by voter-approved charter amendments designed to limit her power.
Cantrell and her remaining supporters claim she faces undue criticism as a Black woman, subjected to harsher scrutiny compared to male officials, and allege that her executive authority has been undermined. Earlier this year, Cantrell commented on the “very disrespectful, insulting, and seemingly unimaginable” challenges she encountered.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
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