With help from Jason Beeferman

The FBI didn’t just raid anyone’s house Thursday.

Brianna Suggs was the campaign fundraiser for Eric Adams’s 2021 mayoral campaign — which is kind of crazy, since she was only 23 years old.

Suggs hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing yet — nobody has. And there’s a lot we don’t know about the U.S. attorney’s investigation (though The New York Times seems to know more than anyone else).

Suggs was basically the campaign finance director, and she may just be the one who has the files that the feds want to see.

But Adams’ decision to hire Suggs is already raising questions.

Despite her age and inexperience, she was appointed to lead fundraising for Adams’ campaign.

Donors to Adams dealt with her directly, one prominent contributor told Playbook. “She was very, very young. … What turned some heads is that she was running the whole operation of that campaign, the finance part of it, and she was so young and inexperienced.”

Suggs may have benefitted from her closeness to the mayor’s longest serving and most senior aide, Ingrid Lewis-Martin. Suggs worked under Lewis-Martin in Adams’ office from 2017 to 2021, when he served as Brooklyn Borough president.

She was referred to as Lewis-Martin’s “goddaughter,” said one person familiar with the mayor’s inner circle. Lewis-Martin did not respond to a request for comment.

“She’s like a kid,” the person said, and “she’s not meticulous,” the way Adams himself is. “These kinds of things aren’t going to take him down, they’re just going to take people around him down.”

Suggs didn’t respond to a request for comment, and her spokesperson, Jordan Barowitz, declined to comment.

Suggs is on the mayor’s reelection campaign. She also worked for the Striving for a Better New York PAC, which was closely aligned with Adams. Suggs was on Miguelina Camilo’s state Senate campaign in 2022 (Camilo is now counsel to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie) and Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Dakota Ramseur’s campaign.

Suggs, too, worked with the Brooklyn Democratic Party — though the party never reported paying her. County Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn downplayed her role, telling Playbook she was just a volunteer. But she defended her fellow Brooklynite.

“Brianna is a person that we consider the most highest integrity,” Bichotte said. “She knows the rules and regulations. She is someone who is smart and mild-mannered.”

Adams himself had less to say, as yet another investigation cast a shadow over him. He didn’t take the chance to defend Suggs specifically Thursday night, just saying he holds his campaign to “the highest ethical standards.”

Asked if he’d spoken with Suggs, he said “no, not at all.”

IT’S FRIDAY. It’s the weekend. Enjoy and thanks for reading! Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.

WHERE’S KATHY? Marking the beginning of work on the Hudson River Tunnel project with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and speaking at the Upper West Side’s B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue.

WHERE’S ERIC? Meeting with children from the Kehilath Jeshurun Congregation, speaking at a flag-raising ceremony for Malaysia, attending the Brooklyn Chinese-American Association’s 35th Anniversary Celebration and delivering remarks at the Black Stars Award ceremony.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Such anti-Semitic activities would not be tolerated at any of our firms” — a letter from more than two dozen top law firms to universities blasting the schools’ responses to antisemitic incidents on campuses.

RACES TO WATCH UPSTATE: When the results for this year’s local elections start trickling in next Tuesday, much of the attention will be on a competitive New York City Council race and the bellwether counties on Long Island.

But there are scores of upstate contests that will provide a measure of the parties’ strength heading into 2024.

Republicans are hopeful they can topple Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Monroe County Executive Adam Bello. But the GOP’s best chance to send a message going into next year might be in the open contest for Ulster County district attorney.

Incumbent Dave Clegg became the first Democrat to win that office in decades when he beat Republican Mike Kavanagh by 77 votes in 2019. Clegg is not running for another term, and Kavanagh is now facing off against Democrat Manny Nneji.

Ulster has largely resisted the Republican gains of the past two years. But a victory by Kavanagh would give the GOP momentum in the area just weeks after Alison Esposito kicked off a campaign against Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan.

Outside of a handful of contests like the Dutchess County executive’s race — where former Republican state Sen. Sue Serino is hoping to fill the job vacated by Rep. Marc Molinaro in January — upstate Democrats are mostly playing defense.

One election worth watching is Democratic political newcomer Emily Essi’s campaign against Republican Onondaga County Clerk Lisa Dell. Republicans have never lost an election for that office, but area Democrats view it as perhaps their best chance at a pick-up this year. Dell, a New York co-chair of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, won her 2019 bid with only 52 percent of the vote.

Essi pointed to 2024 contests in the area like the ones featuring Republican Rep. Brandon Williams and the open race for the state Senate seat held by Democrat John Mannion, who is hoping to run against Williams. “If we can flip this seat, it would be an indicator of the party’s strength right now,” she said. — Bill Mahoney

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Sen. Bernie Sanders is endorsing Justin Brannan in the final days of the Democrat’s fraught City Council race against Republican Ari Kagan, Playbook reports exclusively.

“Justin Brannan fights for working families,” Sanders said in a statement. “As a leading member of the City Council, he’s focused on delivering real results for his constituents and building a future for New York City based on justice for all.”

Sanders, an independent, lends populist credentials to Brannan’s campaign. But the progressive firebrand’s support also comes while the vulnerable council member seeks to appeal to centrist voters.

In the 2016 presidential primary, the Vermont senator beat Hillary Clinton in Bay Ridge, one of the southern Brooklyn neighborhoods where Brannan and Kagan are locked in a bitter incumbent-on-incumbent battle.

Sanders broadens the coalition backing Brannan for reelection. Fellow endorsers include Adams, Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. — Emily Ngo

More from the city:

— Adams’ Ex-NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell has taken a job as New York Mets’ head of public safety. (New York Post)

— City Council Member Inna Vernikov was arraigned Thursday, where her lawyer argued the now-viral photo of her with an apparent pistol in her waistband isn’t proof she was carrying a real gun. (Gothamist)

SPEAK FOR THE TREES: Gov. Kathy Hochul is being urged to sign a measure designed to save tropical forests.

If signed into law, the legislation would block state and local government procurement from funding anything that contributes to tropical deforestation. The law would be the first of its kind for a state to adopt, if the governor approves it.

More than 30 companies, including Kickstarter and Patagonia, on Thursday pushed Hochul to sign the measure.

“As businesses, we know the important role that government and governmental policy plays in the economic health of the state,” they wrote in a letter. “We are convinced this bill would add to the health of the state’s economy through the purchasing power of the government while helping to address crucial climate needs.” — Nick Reisman

More from Albany:

— Hochul rejected using opioid settlement money for safe injection sites. (POLITICO)

— Revel has opened the largest EV fast-charging station in Queens. (QNS)

— Economic factors and efforts for more subsidies, including in New York, are hurting the Biden administration’s clean energy goals. (POLITICO)

— Classes are canceled today at Cornell University after a student was arrested for making antisemitic threats. (The New York Times)

— FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all counts of fraud after historic cryptocurrency collapse. (The Associated Press)

— Eight adults and two children were injured in a Wappingers Falls building explosion. (Poughkeepsie Journal)

IN MEMORIAM: Andrea Miller, who spent decades fighting for abortion rights in New York, died earlier this week. She spent the last 12 years as president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. Here she is talking in January 2019 on a big day for abortion rights in Albany: the passage of the Reproductive Health Act that she fought for.

ENGAGED: Zane Glauber, head of strategic opportunities at Galaxy Blockchain, on Oct. 27 proposed to Melissa Miller, U.S. defense marketing lead at Palantir, at their favorite getaway in Vermont. The couple met on Hinge in New York with their first date at Alice in the village. Pic

MAKING MOVES: Kelly Bliss, president of U.S. Group Health at Teladoc Health, has been named to the New York Fed’s Second District Advisory Council.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Anna Wintour … Christiana Stephenson … Newsmax’s Jenn Pellegrino … CAA’s Rachel Adler … Julian Baird Gewirtz ... Kam Mumtaz … Rowan Morris … Elizabeth Rolnik … ALIGN’s Lucas Shapiro

— A lawsuit challenging New York City’s Local Law 97, which will put strict requirements on buildings’ emissions, was tossed out by a New York judge. (Crain’s New York Business)

— A luxury condo at the Plaza Hotel in Central Park South sold for a record $66 million. (New York Post)