The Democratic mayor of New Orleans is facing prison time after getting exposed in an affair involving her bodyguard.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell, 53, was charged with federal conspiracy, fraud, and obstruction for a multi-year scheme that cheated the city of $70,000.

According to prosecutors, 52-year-old Jeffrey Vappie was paid thousands of dollars for working when he was actually accompanying the mayor on personal trips.

Affair exposed

The couple started their affair as early as October 2021, when Cantrell was still married to her late husband, who died of a heart attack. The affair ultimately led Vappie's wife to file for divorce.

In a 2021 private message reflecting on the affair, Vappie said "it all started" on a trip to Scotland that year.

“The times when we are truly (traveling) is what spoils me the most,” the mayor in another message.

As their romance progressed, they enjoyed time together in Martha's Vineyard and California's wine country, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.

During a trip to San Francisco in April 2022, Vappie charged the city for 15 hours of work each day. He was paid for another 15 hours as they lingered an extra day to tour Napa Valley, which is famous for its expensive wine.

Covering their tracks

The pair went to great lengths to keep the affair hush-hush, exchanging 15,000 messages on the secure messaging app WhatsApp. They later deleted messages, lied under oath to a grand jury, and intimidated subordinates, prosecutors say.

Cantrell has long faced scrutiny for misusing public funds, including by living rent-free in a luxury, city-owned apartment in the historic French Quarter where she met with Vappie during his work hours.

She has defended her pricey first-class travel arrangements in the past by blaming COVID and her supposedly unique circumstances as a black woman.

"Anyone who wants to question how I protect myself just doesn’t understand the world black women walk in,” she said in 2022.

All in all, Cantrell went on 14 private trips with Vappie and met him at her apartment while he was on the clock, acting US Attorney Michael Simpson said. The prosecutor dismissed Cantrell's excuses, calling her alleged conduct "an incredible betrayal of people's confidence in their own government."

Cantrell has yet to comment on the federal charges, the first to be brought against a sitting New Orleans mayor. The indictment makes for a scandalous final chapter in a notoriously corrupt career, which is set to end in five months due to term limits.