The FBI on Thursday conducted a raid on the home of one of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s chief political consultants, Brianna Suggs.
The New York Times was the first to report that the raid on Ms. Suggs, who manages many of the mayor’s most important fundraising efforts, led to Mr. Adams abruptly canceling several scheduled meetings in Washington, D.C. with White House officials and members of Congress about the intensifying illegal immigration crisis plaguing the city.
According to CNN, the raid was centered on an investigation aimed at determining whether there was a conspiracy between Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign and a Brooklyn-based KSK Construction Group with close ties to Turkey to funds into the campaign’s finances.
The KSK Construction Group owns apartment buildings and condominiums throughout the city. It is owned by the KiSKA Construction Corp., a company that possesses two branches of a Turkish hotel chain in the United States.
Mr. Adams released a statement on Thursday evening assuring people that he felt “extremely comfortable” that he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
“I feel extremely comfortable about how I comply with rules and procedures. I’ve stated this over and over again. I hold myself to a high standard, I hold my campaign to a high standard, and I hold my staffers at city hall to a high standard,” he said.
Suggs is reportedly playing a pivotal role in fundraising for the mayor’s 2025 re-election campaign. According to the city’s campaign finance board, the Adams 2025 campaign has already amassed over $2.5 million in funds.
On Friday, Mr. Adams insisted that Ms. Suggs was a “real professional” and confirmed she would remain part of his campaign team.
However, he has also denied any knowledge of “improper fundraising activity” and pledged to “work with officials to respond to inquiries.”
“I am outraged and angry if anyone attempted to use the campaign to manipulate our democracy and defraud our campaign,” Mr. Adams said in the statement. “I want to be clear, I have no knowledge, direct or otherwise, of any improper fundraising activity—and certainly not of any foreign money.”
In September, The City reported that Mr. Adams and his campaign staff had consistently rejected requests from city regulators to disclose the origins of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations, amounting to $300,000 contributed by over 500 donors. Whether any campaign finance laws were breached remains unclear.
“The campaign has responded to every notice from [the campaign finance board] as appropriate – while also investigating concerns as appropriate – and will continue to follow all rules and best practices as mandated by the CFB,” Mr. Adams’ campaign counsel said at the time.
Mr. Adams has repeatedly bragged about his connections to New York City’s Turkish-American community. He recently organized a flag-raising ceremony in Lower Manhattan and mentioned that he had visited Turkey on numerous occasions.
“I’m probably the only mayor in the history of this city that has not only visited Turkey once, but I think I’m on my sixth or seventh visit to Turkey,” Mr. Adams said last week.
During his tenure as the Borough of Brooklyn president, Mr. Adams made at least two separate trips to Turkey. On one occasion, he formalized a sister city agreement with Istanbul’s Üsküdar district in August 2015, with expenses covered by the Turkish consulate. The second trip’s costs were sponsored by an organization known as the World Tourism Foundation.
“This visit underscores the deep importance of our own Turkish community and their contributions to our One Brooklyn family,” an Adams press release said at the time.
The State Department and the Turkish Embassy have so far declined to comment.
