Mayor Adams’ reelection campaign late Wednesday disclosed more than $113,000 in new payments to Brianna Suggs, his longtime political fundraiser whose exact role on his team has not been publicly disclosed.
Suggs — the 2025 campaign’s highest paid vendor to date — was removed from her fundraising job after her home was raided in late 2023 as part of the federal investigation into Adams’ Turkish government ties. The new payments are described as being for consulting work, though it remains unclear what her exact duties on the campaign are since her role shift.
One of of the payments to Suggs — in the amount of $33,249 and described as compensation for a fundraiser — is dated Feb. 9, 2023, but has not been publicly disclosed until now as part of Adams’ latest campaign finance filing. Candidates are supposed to report expenditures for the disclosure periods in which they are incurred.
The rest of the Suggs payments, totaling $80,000, are from 2024, after she switched out of the fundraising role.
Some of the 2024 payments are also dated outside of the latest reporting period, including multiple from August 2024 — just before Adams was indicted on criminal charges alleging he took bribes and illegal campaign cash from Turkish government operatives in exchange for political favors.
Adams has pleaded not guilty.
Adams’ campaign lawyer, Vito Pitta, did not return a request for comment late Wednesday.
An attorney for Suggs didn’t return a request for comment, either. Her lawyer has previously stated she’s not cooperating in the investigation into Adams’ Turkey ties, which the feds say remains ongoing. No charges have been filed against Suggs.
Accounting for the latest payments, Adams’ reelection campaign has since March 2022 paid Suggs $430,160 — almost 10% of the $4.5 million it has raised in total to date. No other vendor or staffer has been paid as much by Adams’ 2025 campaign, according to a review of his filings.
Adams’ 2021 campaign paid Suggs another $51,500, filings show.
The November 2023 raid at Suggs’ Brooklyn home was the first public law enforcement action taken as part of the Adams-Turkey investigation. It catapulted the probe into the public spotlight and created a major controversy for Adams, who’s now expected to go on trial in April on the criminal charges that came out of the Turkey investigation.
After the raid, Adams said Suggs would no longer work as his main political fundraising coordinator. He did say he would stay on his campaign in another post, the specific duties of which have since not been spelled out.
Suggs has worked for Adams for years, starting as an intern at Brooklyn Borough Hall when he was borough president. She’s personally close with Adams’ indicted ex-chief adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who calls Suggs her “goddaughter.”
As part of his latest campaign filing, Adams also disclosed he received a $2,100 donation, the legal max, from “Madison Square Garden New York,” without any person listed in the paperwork as having made the contribution. Campaigns can’t legally accept contributions from corporations, and Pitta didn’t return a request for comment on that matter, either.
Madison Square Garden’s billionaire owner James Dolan along with relatives and business associates gave more than $60,000 to Adams’ legal and political coffers in their names this summer, The News previously reported. Most of that money was later returned.
Also in the latest reporting period, the mayor’s 2025 campaign doled out $2,400 to the Riverdale Yacht Club and $419 to Zero Bond, the members-only SoHo club he frequents, the latest filings show. The payments were both issued on Nov. 26 and are listed as being for fundraisers.
With Josephine Stratman
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