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Two Democratic Senate candidates have received backlash for accepting donations from a Democrat megadonor with former ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
James Talarico and Sen. Jon Ossoff, D- Ga., who is running for re-election, have both received donations from Reid Hoffman, a billionaire who has admitted to spending time on Epstein's Caribbean island, Fox News reported. Hoffman donated $11.5 million to a Talarico-aligned super PAC called Lone Star Rising, according to The Texas Tribune. Hoffman donated $7,000 to Ossoff's campaign, the maximum legal amount.
"Democrats like Jon Ossoff and James Talarico vilify corporate billionaires in one breath and accept their cash in the next," a GOP operative who declined to be named told Fox News Digital. They're fueling the same ‘money in politics' gravy train they claim to oppose, he said.
Both Talarico and Ossoff have referred to the "Epstein class" when discussing billionaires. Talarico, for example, has said in an interview, "The Epstein Class has no place in Texas," while Ossoff said in a news statement earlier this year that "MAGA […] is the Epstein class, ruling our country."
In February, documents made public by the Trump administration's Department of Justice showed Hoffman's ties to Epstein, who killed himself after being held without bail in New York City on federal sex trafficking charges. The released documents did not allege criminal wrongdoing by Hoffman, but showed him planning visits to multiple Epstein properties, Just the News previously reported. One of the memos, from 2014, revealed that Hoffman spent the night at Epstein's Manhattan town house, where many of the disgraced financier's crimes were alleged to have taken place. Another memo suggested Hoffman was planning to spend a weekend at Epstein's ranch in New Mexico and to travel to Little St. James, Epstein's private island in the Caribbean.
Evidence showed Epstein pal Hoffman donated to Durbin and Whitehouse
In December, the Department of Justice (DOJ) publicly accused two other Democrats of taking Hoffman's dark money. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi testified a few months earlier to the Senate Judiciary Committee about releasing the Epstein files, during which she accused Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., of accepting Hoffman's money, linking him to Epstein. At the time, Durbin, Whitehouse, and nine other Democrat senators claimed Bondi was evading questions about the Epstein files by falsely accusing them of accepting contributions from Hoffman.
But the DOJ's letter in December stated that publicly available evidence showed Hoffman donated to Durbin and Whitehouse.
"[The] evidence paints a clear picture that Reid Hoffman has established a dark-money empire that channels anonymous donations through nonprofits and PACs to influence federal elections and judicial nominations," Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Hoffman: "Deeply regretful"
The DOJ's letter noted more than 1,650 contributions – over $76 million – from Hoffman to Democrats and Democrat-aligned causes, including the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee and $60,000 to the Democratic Party of Illinois.
Hoffman's first known meeting with Epstein came on July 19, 2013, about five years after he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution and procuring a minor for prostitution in Florida, Fox reported. The Wall Street Journal also reported that in 2014, Hoffman sent Epstein ice cream, with a note saying it was either for Epstein or "the girls."
Hoffman has since apologized for his association with Epstein, telling Axios that "by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice. For this, I am deeply regretful."
