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New Yorkers were stunned to hear the FBI is looking into a possible straw donor scam involving Mayor Eric Adams. The investigation alleges that a leading Adams campaign donor, Brianna Suggs, was involved in a kickback scheme involving a Turkish donor and a Brooklyn construction company. The mayor has said he will cooperate with the investigation. Former Westchester County executive Rob Astorino, however, finds the timing of the raid a little fishy. He appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program and hinted at the possible reason why.
“I’m going to give Eric Adams the benefit of the doubt, because I have seen the Feds do this so many times to so many people and come up with nothing,” Astorino told Berman and Riedel. “They do it to smear, and let’s just, I don’t know, let’s just go far out and say because Mayor Adams started to go after Joe Biden, maybe this is a little message from the FBI and those in DC, but that’s far-fetched. They’re going to try to get to Adams if it’s true. The question is, did he know about all of this, if it did happen. If money came from a foreign source, it’s completely illegal.”
Ultimately, Astorino cautioned that the mayor possibly knows nothing, and stressed “innocent until proven guilty” as the rule of thumb here. “I’ve seen it. I’ve had to deal with it. So, it’s completely wrong, you know, what they do at times, and sometimes they’re absolutely right in going after people, and they get them because they did something bad. But all I’m saying is, step back for a minute. Let this play out; he may or may not have known, and if he did know, then he’s going to face the consequences.”
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