(SNews) – Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents have raided the home of Brianna Suggs, the top fundraiser for New York City’s Democrat Mayor Eric Adams, according to reports.
The FBI searched the Brooklyn home of Suggs on Thursday, according to the New York Times.
Suggs is a campaign consultant who is deeply entwined with efforts to advance the Democrat mayor’s agenda.
The raid prompted Adams to abruptly cancel several meetings scheduled for Thursday morning in Washington, D.C..
Adams was scheduled to talk to White House officials and members of Congress about the influx of migrants in New York and other major cities.
Instead, he hurriedly returned to New York “to deal with a matter,” a spokesman for the mayor said.
A LinkedIn profile belonging to Suggs lists her as the “Fundraiser and Director of Logistics” of Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign.
Suggs also lists Adams under her past and current clients on her business website.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern District as well as the FBI have yet to make a public statement about the operation.
Vito Pitta, Adams 2021 campaign counsel, said in a statement:
“The campaign has always held itself to the highest standards.
“The campaign will of course comply with any inquiries, as appropriate.”
Shortly before the raid, Adams tweeted a video with the caption:
“On my way to D.C. to join my fellow mayors to talk with our federal partners about the asylum seeker crisis.”
“We are headed to D.C. to meet with our Congressional delegation and the White House to address this real issue of the asylum and migrant issue in our city and we will keep you updated as the day goes,” Adams said in a clip of him sitting in an airplane.
A spokesperson for the mayor later revealed that “The mayor returned to New York City to address a matter.
“These meetings will be rescheduled as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said.
According to the NY Times, a “person with knowledge of the raid” said agents from one of the public corruption squads in the FBI’s New York office questioned Suggs during the search of her home.
An FBI spokesman confirmed that “we are at that location carrying out law enforcement action,” referring to Suggs’s home in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.
In the past two years, Adams’s re-election campaign has paid Suggs nearly $100,000 for fundraising and campaign consulting services via her company, Suggs Solutions, according to city records.
His first mayoral campaign paid her more than $50,000.
Suggs has also registered as a lobbyist.
State records indicate that a real estate concern hired Suggs, via an intermediary, to lobby the mayor’s office and the New York City Council on its behalf in 2022.
Suggs worked as an aide to Adams when he was Brooklyn borough president, and Ingrid Lewis-Martin — currently the mayor’s top adviser — was his deputy.
A key ally’s political action committee, Striving for a Better New York, which promised to support state candidates aligned with Adams on policy matters, has paid Suggs roughly $100,000.
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