NYC Mayor Eric Adams says he ‘sleeps well at night’ as he backs fundraising chief Brianna Suggs despite FBI raid on her home – but adds that he has retained a personal lawyer

New York Mayor Eric Adams has claimed he is “sleeping well at night” as he supported his fundraising chief after an FBI raid – before adding he has hired a personal lawyer.

The Democrat rushed back from DC last week after federal agents raided the Brooklyn home of his top fundraiser and longtime confidante Brianna Suggs, 25, as part of an investigation into an alleged kickback scheme.

At his first press conference since the raid, Adams stood by Suggs and denied any wrongdoing. He said his campaign followed the rules and will continue to do so during the investigation into his fundraising.

He said, ‘I sleep well at night. It is clear to me that we are following the rules, and I am angry if there are people who are trying to do anything in any way that would conflict with the process of raising campaign dollars.”

Adams added that he would be “shocked and hurt” if officials discovered his campaign had done anything illegal.

The mayor told reporters he decided to give the young woman an opportunity to work in politics that “African Americans don’t get.”

“African Americans are often not allowed to play on a national scale, as fundraisers, media, speechwriters… I had a young, brilliant young lady who was an intern, hardworking, willing to work as many hours as she could,” he said. said.

“We saw an opportunity to open up the path for her that I saw others get… she worked hard, she learned, and the people who met her were truly blown away, and I’m proud of her and she will get through this. .’

Neither Adams nor anyone in his campaign has been charged with any crimes.

“We followed the rules because we knew our campaign would be scrutinized,” he told reporters.

With Suggs’ help, Adams has raised more than $2.5 million for his re-election campaign.

In D.C., Adams was scheduled to lead a delegation of mayors from the country’s five largest cities that were struggling with an influx of migrants when he decided to return to New York.

Reporters scrutinized the decision Wednesday, questioning whether his choice showed he was putting his campaign issues ahead of the city’s current migrant crisis.

But Adams defended his decision to return to New York and miss meetings with D.C. officials to ask for federal help, saying he wanted to be present for his city hall and campaign teams.

He said: “Migrants are our biggest concern in this city… We are happy to have built that coalition (of mayors),” he said. “We see a coalition that I talked about and because it was there, they were able to continue the meetings.

“This problem is not going away and I will come back to DC and address these issues.”

The meeting with senior White House aides – including the mayors of Denver and Chicago – took place without Adams present.

Adams reiterated Wednesday that the migrant situation has led to a five percent cut in city services, and another five percent may be cut in January as NYC grapples with more than 120,000 new migrants.

Suggs has worked for Adams since 2017, when she joined his staff in the Brooklyn Borough President’s office as a teenager, reporting directly to her godmother, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a longtime ally of Adams who now serves as the mayor’s chief adviser.

When Adams, a Democrat, ran for mayor in 2021, Suggs served as chief fundraiser and director of logistics, helping organize events and solicit money from donors. Records show she was paid more than $150,000 for her work on his previous campaign and his current re-election bid.

The New York Times obtained part of the search warrant, which showed it was related to an investigation into Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign.

Authorities are investigating whether the campaign colluded with a Brooklyn construction company and the Turkish government to funnel foreign money into the campaign’s coffers, apparently through a straw donor program.

While the mayor’s office handles the investigation, the city continues to deal with the massive influx of migrants.

More than two million people crossed the border illegally between October 2022 and September 2023, according to Border Patrol data.

The surge of migrants in these cities is partly due to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s initiative to send asylum seekers crossing the Mexico-US border to Democratic sanctuary cities in an effort to reverse what he sees as open-borders policies under the to bring attention.

New York has received by far the highest number of migrants of any other city in the North: more than 120,000 in just 18 months. Adams first welcomed migrants sent north by Abbot who went to the Port Authority to personally receive the first buses.

In August 2022, the mayor told reporters, “As mayor of New York, I have to provide services to families who are here, and that’s what we’re going to do – our responsibility as a city, and I’m proud that this is a Right to Shelter -state, and we will continue to do so.’

But the buses kept coming, and a year later, Adams is advocating for federal and state aid. He is asking a judge to suspend the Right to Shelter policy and limit the stay of migrants in the city’s care. The city is currently hosting more than 60,000 migrants in hundreds of emergency shelters.

The city has signed more than $5 billion in nearly 200 migrant services contracts since last year, when he declared a state of emergency. Adams has said the crisis will cost the city $12 billion over three years, and has warned that New Yorkers will see their services hit by budget cuts to cope with the situation.

In May, Adams made major changes to the city’s 40-year-old Right to Shelter law, which guarantees a bed for anyone who needs one, as his administration asked for federal and state help to deal with the surge of migrants he needed. now says it could destroy New York as we know it.

“This issue will destroy New York City,” Adams has said of the influx of asylum seekers.

Adams has even traveled to South America in his efforts to tell migrants to stay away from New York. His government has also sent flyers to the border saying the city is “at full capacity” and has a high cost of living.