Eric Adams Seeks Quick $500K For Legal Defense Amid FBI Probe: Report
NEW YORK CITY — Anyone want to help Mayor Eric Adams raise a quick $500,000?
Adams hopes to raise the six-figure sum in the next two weeks for the legal defense fund he set up amid an FBI probe into his 2021 campaign, the New York Post first reported.
The reported mid-December goal itself comes just weeks after Adams set up the trust itself to pay for legal expenses connected to federal inquiries about his campaign’s fundraising.
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“Once we have that infrastructure up and operating, it will be transparent, and you’ll see exactly who’s doing what,” he said this week.
Evan Thies, a spokesperson for Adams in the 2021 mayoral race, told Patch the trust and campaign are separate.
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The trust allows Adams to take donations up to $5,000, except from city government employees and people doing businesses with the city. Donor information must be disclosed to the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, with the first report due Jan. 15, according to local law.
Adams has said he has nothing to hide as FBI agents probe whether his 2021 campaign received illegal donations from Turkish government. Agents raided the home of a key Adams fundraiser — Brianna Suggs — last month as part of the investigation and seized the mayor’s phones.
The mayor said this week that Suggs is no longer doing fundraising for his campaign.
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