Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that he has hired a private defense attorney in the wake of an FBI raid on the home of his top fundraiser as he defended his response to the growing political crisis.
Adams made the remarks at City Hall during his first press conference since federal agents were seen carting off a box full of documents last week from the Brooklyn brownstone owned by campaign honcho, Brianna Suggs, family.
The disclosure came as Adams’ mounted his first sustained public defense of his actions in the immediate aftermath of the last week’s stunning raid, which took place as Hizzoner headed to Washington D.C. for a day of meetings about the migrant crisis at the White House and on Capitol Hill.
“Leadership is about presence,” the mayor said, defending his snap decision to head back to New York immediately after hearing about the raid.
“I wanted to be here among not only my campaign team, but my City Hall team.”
The mayor did not identify his new attorney. His spokesmen at City Hall referred questions to Adams’ political operation, which did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Sources told The Post that Adams is being informally advised by a former top legal aide, Brendan McGuire.
But, McGuire has not been retained and likely could not be formally brought to the case on because of city ethics rules that strictly limit former municipal employees from dealing with their former agencies or bosses.
McGuire’s white shoe law firm represents the mayor’s political operation.
Adams decision on Thursday to cancel out meetings where he was expected to press the Biden administration for more financial aid and other support alongside the mayors of both Chicago and Denver, Colo. has been sharply criticized.
However, the mayor snapped when asked if his snap decision to return home showed he was putting his political travails ahead of the city’s pressing issues.
“No. Next question,” he tartly responded.
The mayor has bludgeoned Biden for not providing enough financial aid and other assistance to help the Big Apple cope with the arrival of roughly 140,000 migrants over the last year-and-a-half.
Adams blames the federal government for potentially forcing budget cuts of 15 percent over the next year to cover the cost of providing housing and services to the recent arrivals, a tab City Hall estimates will hit $12 billion over three years.
Adams blamed the budget crisis, in part, for his decision to ditch the annual Somos conference and confab organized by the state Legislature’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force in Puerto Rico, which is often a must-attend for Big Apple politicos.
“Me, using taxpayer dollars, right now, is not the best thing to do,” Adams said, describing the fiscal situation as “beyond our imagination.”
Adams has faced a growing number of legal and political scandals deep into the second year of his administration.
His first Buildings Commissioner, Eric Ulrich, resigned after Manhattan prosecutors put him under the microscope — and then indicted him — on allegations of trading access and favors for gifts and other bribes estimated to be worth $150,000.
The Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, amped up the pressure in July when he brought charges against six people, including a former police commander and a local construction firm, for organizing a straw donor scheme to channel cash to Adams’ 2021 mayoral bid.
Adams’ fundraising headaches then grew worse with the recent FBI raid, which was triggered by a separate probe into another possible straw donor scheme — this one, allegedly involving a high-profile Brooklyn builder, KSK Construction, and cash from a foreign country, Turkey.
Suggs is not only Adams’ top fundraiser, she is close to the mayor’s right hand at City Hall, Chief Advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin and has been described by Brooklyn political sources as her “political god-daughter.”
As Adams’ woes have mounted, his administration has responded by clamping down on city reporters.
Weekly briefings about the migrant crisis have disappeared from the schedule, ditto the regular briefings on public safety and other policing matters in the city.
Adams now refuses to take questions on the news of the day following public events if not on the topic set by City Hall, except at a single weekly briefing.
City Hall staffers closed the security gate between the reporters desks at City Hall and his wing of the building at 11:02 a.m. to allow the mayor to walk from his offices into the historic Blue Room.
They then refused to let the reporters who arrived as the gate was shut, claiming they were late for the 11 a.m. press conference and the massive briefing space was too full.
City Hall often fails to meet that promptness standard in its own operations. For example, Hizzoner was some 40 minutes late for the previous week’s press conference.
Wednesday’s face off with reporters was the among the shortest since Adams began his clamp down, measuring in at just 42 minutes.