Brianna Suggs, a longtime aide to Mayor Adams, is no longer raising funds for his 2025 campaign and will take on “another role” on his reelection bid in the wake of her home being raided by the FBI as part of a public corruption investigation, according to the mayor and a person close to his political operation.
“She’s no longer doing fundraising for the campaign,” Adams said Wednesday at City Hall after being asked by the Daily News if Suggs’ duties have been modified since the FBI raid on Nov. 2.
Adams declined to say why he decided to take away those responsibilities from Suggs, who has been in charge of his political fundraising operation since the 2021 campaign. “I’m not going to go into personal conversations,” he said.
A source close to Adams’ 2025 campaign said Suggs will continue to be involved in the reelection bid, but in “another role.” The source confirmed the new role will also be paid, but declined to elaborate on the nature of it.
Suggs, who has claimed credit in paperwork for raising more than $20 million for the mayor’s 2021 and 2025 campaigns, did not return a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
The raid at Suggs’ Crown Heights home was part of a multi-tiered federal investigation into allegations that Adams’ 2021 campaign conspired with the Turkish government to funnel illegal foreign cash into the campaign’s coffers via straw donors. Adams has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing as part of the probe.
In an interview days after the Suggs raid, Adams described her as a talented fundraiser and did not indicate he was considering modifying her role with his campaign.
“She led the fundraising numbers when you look at throughout the entire campaign, and I feel confidence in her integrity and how hard she works,” he said on PIX11. “And often, young African American ladies don’t get the opportunities that others received in this business of politics, and she stood up from an intern, became a good staffer and ran our entire fundraising apparatus in this previous campaign and this one as well.”
Days after the raid at Suggs’ pad, FBI agents stopped Adams after an event in Manhattan and seized his cellphones and iPad. Rana Abbasova, another longtime aide to Adams, also had her home raided by the FBI on Nov. 2 as part of the probe, as did Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on the mayor’s 2021 transition committee.
Many details of the federal investigation into Adams’ campaign remain unknown. Sources have confirmed an episode the feds are scrutinizing involves the September 2021 opening of the Turkish consulate in Manhattan, which came after then-Democratic mayoral nominee Adams reached out to the head of the FDNY to ask him to look into resolving a safety inspection issue at the property.