Eric Adams’ top fundraiser is out in the open amid FBI investigation and raid

New York Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that the 25-year-old woman he chose to manage his political fundraising was no longer working in that role, weeks after an FBI search uncovered a federal investigation. his campaign and threw his government into turmoil.

Mr. Adams’ announcement was something of a reversal: He had previously said it was “confident” in the fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, adding that she was qualified for the job and that he would like her to stay on his team.

At his weekly news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Adams declined to explain the reasons for the change, saying, as he often does, that he did not want to discuss private conversations.

“She is no longer fundraising for the campaign,” Mr. Adams said in response to a reporter’s question.

Ms. Suggs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A person close to the campaign said Ms. Suggs was moving to a new role in the unit. Mr. Adams’ campaign already has a big lead over potential challengers in fundraising, having raised more than $2.5 million in donations.

When news of the raid broke on Nov. 2, Mr. Adams abruptly left Washington, where he had traveled that morning for meetings with White House and Congressional officials about a migrant crisis that he said would “devastate New York City destroy’.

He justified his return to New York in part by saying he wanted to provide Ms. Suggs with emotional support after a “traumatizing experience,” even though he said he had not spoken to her on the day of the raid.

Ms. Suggs, who was represented by the same law firm that Mr. Adams for himself and his campaign recently hired a new attorney for the investigation, raising the possibility that her interests could conflict with those of the mayor. The legal development also indicates that the investigation, which is at least partially investigating possible illegal foreign campaign contributions by the Turkish government, is at an advanced stage.

Ms. Suggs is at least the second person close to Mr. Adams to face professional consequences as the federal investigation continues. Rana Abbasova, a prominent staffer in the mayor’s international affairs office, was “immediately placed on leave” after City Hall learned she had “acted inappropriately,” a mayoral spokesperson said earlier this month.

The FBI’s search of Ms. Suggs’ Brooklyn home was the first public sign of the investigation.

On that Thursday morning, agents removed her electronic devices, computers and folders related to the Adams campaign. According to a search warrant obtained by The New York Times, investigators sought records related to the campaign’s possible acceptance of illegal foreign donations from the Turkish government or Turkish nationals through intermediaries known as straw donors.

A few days later, FBI agents showed up to seize phones and other devices from Mr. Adams as he left an evening event in Manhattan. Neither Mr. Adams nor Ms. Suggs have been accused of any wrongdoing. The mayor has repeatedly said that he is cooperating with the investigation and that he has always instructed his aides to follow the law.

The warrant to search Ms. Suggs’ home indicates that investigators are focusing on the role of a Brooklyn construction company, KSK Construction Group, in a possible straw donor program. They also sought documents related to communications involving the Adams campaign and its members, the Turkish consulate in New York and a university in Washington, D.C., connected to a school Mr. Adams once attended in Turkey.

As part of the investigation, the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether the Turkish government conspired with Mr. Adams’ campaign to funnel foreign donations into campaign coffers, and whether Mr. Adams pressured fire department officials to to conclude a new agreement. Establish Turkish consulate despite security concerns.

On the same day that Ms. Suggs’ home was searched, agents with search warrants also visited the New Jersey homes of Ms. Abbasova and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who was a member of the mayor’s transition team.

Ms. Abbasova, who had served as Mr. Adams’ liaison to Brooklyn’s Turkish and Azerbaijani communities when he was borough president, also traveled with him to Turkey in 2015.

Ms. Suggs was an unusual choice to head Mr. Adams’ fundraising operation. She was only 23 when she raised money for his 2021 mayoral campaign, and many people who interacted with her struck her as clearly inexperienced.

But she also had deep ties to Mr. Adams, with whom she had worked since at least 2018, and to his top aide, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, whom Ms. Suggs would call her goddaughter.

After the raid on Ms. Suggs’ Brooklyn home, Mr. Adams suggested she stay on as fundraising chief and defended his decision to let such a young person take on such an important role.

“Often, young African American ladies are not given the opportunities that others are given in this political issue,” Mr. Adams said at the time.