Investigated and on upaid leave, staffer gets traffic tix

Rana Abbasova, the aide to Mayor Adams whose home was raided by federal investigators late last year, received three tickets in New Jersey in January for offenses linked to driving a for-hire vehicle, court records show.

The tickets, which were issued on Jan. 22, 2024 — two months after the FBI executed a search warrant at her Fort Lee address — are listed on the New Jersey courts database as “active” matters and have not been previously reported on.

According to New Jersey court records, Abbasova received three tickets that are pending in Cliffside Park Municipal Court. Those tickets are for failing to display a “credential placard,” “identifying marker” and “TNC bar code,” an abbreviation for a code associated with a transportation network company. The vehicle associated with all three tickets is a gold 2023 Nissan station wagon.

The violations issued to Abbasova are typically given to Uber and other for-hire vehicle drivers, according to Susan Castaneda, the Cliffside Park court administrator.

Since the raid of her home, Abbasova was put on unpaid leave from her City Hall gig doing advance work for the mayor, raising questions about how she’s paying for her legal defense and other bills.

The search of her home in November is tied to a federal probe of the mayor’s possible ties to Turkey.

As part of that investigation, the feds seized the mayor’s electronic devices last year and searched the home of Brianna Suggs, a top fundraiser for his campaign.

Adams, Suggs and Abbasova have not been accused of any wrongdoing as part of the probe.

According to her online bio, Abbasova’s official duties include acting as an international affairs protocol director responsible for “vetting foreign delegations, organizing meetings with foreign delegations for the mayor and [International Affairs Commissioner Ed Mermelstein], and creating events for foreign dignitaries.”

Abbasova did not return messages inquiring about whether she’s driving a for-hire vehicle to pay off her legal bills, and her attorney declined to comment.

Fabien Levy, Adams’ deputy mayor for communications, said he wasn’t aware of Abbasova’s side hustle.