Federal Investigators Continue Probe into New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell

NEW ORLEANS, La. (KPEL News) - Federal prosecutors are building a case against New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell, and their latest round of subpoenas may be a hint as to where their investigation is headed.

The Times-Picayune in New Orleans previously reported that federal investigators were approaching business owners who made donations to Cantrell to see if they had received any "favors" from City Hall.

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The latest businessman to be approached by the feds was asked to provide any communications between himself and the New Orleans mayor, the Times-Picayune reported on Monday.

The sources said Cantrell approached the businessman sometime after August, when the City Council barred the mayor from further stays in the city-owned apartment in the Upper Pontalba building in Jackson Square. The sources said Cantrell asked if the businessman could rent her a place.

The developer offered the mayor a lease at a rate above fair-market value in a building he had renovated, the source said, and she declined. She asked for a lower rate elsewhere and the owner refused, the sources said.

In the end, the mayor never stayed in any of the developers’ properties, meaning investigators left the exchange essentially empty-handed, the sources said.

The developers, like the previous two business owners approached by the federal investigators, was a donor to Cantrell's mayoral campaign.

The investigation has been open for around a year and was running concurrently with a recall effort that ultimately failed.

Cantrell previously stated that she is fully cooperating with authorities, but she has refused to answer any questions about what kind of information they have been looking for.