New York Mayor Adams’ fundraising lags amid several scandals, new records show

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams has so far raised nearly $3 million for his next mayoral run, but his fundraising operation has flagged in recent months — a dip in political cash flow that coincides with several scandals that have damaged his administration.

Adams’ latest fundraising haul, which was made public Tuesday by the city’s Campaign Finance Board, comes as his campaign faces a federal investigation into potential inappropriate ties to Turkey and after two state probes led to the indictment of his former Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich and the indictments of several people allegedly involved in a straw donor scheme to further Adams’ political prospects.

The data released by the Campaign Finance Board shows that while Team Adams raised nearly $1.3 million between January and July of last year, his campaign brought in $400,000 from July 2023 through Jan. 12 of this year.

That dip roughly coincides with the straw donor indictment last July, the indictment of Ulrich last September and the revelation in November that the feds were probing the campaign’s ties to Turkey — which became public after the home of Adams’ top campaign staffer Brianna Suggs was raided by the FBI.

Adams was also accused in November of sexual assault, which allegedly occurred in 1993.

The CFB’s data release Tuesday also revealed recent expenditures made by Adams’ political operation. Included in those were $152,352 to Brianna Suggs' company, Suggs Solutions LLC. Those payments came in two installments during the last CFB filing period: one for $88,385 on July 14, 2023, and a second for $63,967.06 on Nov. 1 — the day before federal investigators searched her Brooklyn home.

Prior to those payments, Suggs Solutions received more than $124,000 from the Adams campaign last year. The mayor revealed in December that Suggs had been assigned to a campaign job doing “administrative paperwork.”

A spokesperson for the campaign did not immediately respond to the New York Daily News on Tuesday evening.

A separate data dump from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board on Tuesday showed that donors to that cause, which was launched in the wake of the Turkey probe, have given more than $650,000 to pay for lawyers fees Adams expects to rack up in the coming months.

So far, Team Adams has burned through more than $430,000 of it, with the largest outlay of $397,189 going to WilmerHale, the law firm Adams retained last year to represent him and his campaign in the FBI investigation. The Artus Group, which provided “vetting and investigative services,” received a more modest sum of $18,664.

Some of the contributors to the defense fund include Leonard Blavatnik, a billionaire businessman with ties to a U.S.-sanctioned Russian oligarch, cryptocurrency tycoon Brock Pierce and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who kicked in $5,000 for Adams.

_____