🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
A federal grand jury has indicted New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, concluding a lengthy corruption probe into the city’s first female mayor.
Cantrell’s attorney, Eddie Castaing, confirmed to The Associated Press that an indictment was returned Friday, with her name read aloud in federal court as a defendant. The specific charges have not yet been disclosed.
The indictment caps a years-long investigation into the two-term Democrat, whose tenure has been marked by both early achievements and deep political turmoil. Cantrell, who is term-limited, will leave office in January after surviving a 2022 recall effort and enduring frequent clashes with the City Council during a turbulent second term.
Once a high-profile leader credited with major city initiatives, Cantrell’s public presence has diminished in recent months. She has not posted on her official X account since July 15, when she highlighted “historic declines” in crime. Political observers say her influence has waned, weakened further by voter-approved changes to the city charter that curbed her powers.
Former allies and supporters have drifted away amid what critics call self-inflicted wounds and escalating feuds with the council. Cantrell and her remaining backers contend she has been unfairly targeted as a Black woman and subjected to a harsher standard than male leaders, accusing opponents of undermining her authority.
Earlier this year, Cantrell described her treatment as “very disrespectful, insulting, in some cases kind of unimaginable.”
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.