Jeffrey Epstein Spread Political Donations Around Washington for Years

Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in New York on Saturday and later charged with sex trafficking involving dozens of girls, donated thousands of dollars to Democrat candidates and left-leaning committees from 1990 until 2018, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Prominent recipients of Epstein donations include the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), former United States Secretary of State John Kerry (D), former United States Secretary of Agriculture and Rep. Dan Glickman (D-KS), former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), and Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett.

According to the online data, Schumer received seven $1,000 donations from Epstein between 1992 and 1997. Victory in New York, a fundraising committee established by Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, received a $10,000 donation from Epstein in October of 1998.

In 1998, Epstein also made a $5,000 donation to Win New York, a Schumer-associated committee that helped rake in money for the Liberal Party of New York state.

According to the data, Schumer and Schumer-associated entities received $22,000 from Epstein throughout the 1990s.

A Schumer spokesperson told the Washington Examiner Wednesday that Schumer would be “donating an equal sum” of the Epstein donation “to anti-sex trafficking and anti-violence against women groups.”

After she first refused to return the money, Stacey Plaskett, the delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Virgin Islands who received $8,100 from Epstein since 2016, said Thursday that she would not keep the money. Instead, Plaskett has “decided to make contributions to Virgin Islands organizations that work with women and children in the amount of his previous contributions.”

Kerry, who served as Secretary of State under Democrat President Barack Obama, received a total of four $1,000 donations from Epstein between 1991 and 2002 during his time as a U.S. senator from Massachussets, according to records from OpenSecrets.org.

Epstein also made four separate $1,000 donations from 1991 to 1994 to former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, all while he served as a Democrat representative of Kansas’s fourth congressional district.

Online data revealed Joe Lieberman, who served as an independent U.S. senator for Connecticut from 1989 until 2013, received three separate $1,000 donations from Epstein between 1994 and 1999.

In 1992, Epstein donated to Bill Clinton’s presidential election efforts on two separate occasions, with both donations valued at $1,000 each.

Epstein’s three separate donations to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1994, 1998, and 1999 were valued at $5,000, $9,000, and $20,000 respectively.

Other Democrats who have received monetary donations from Epstein over the years include former New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman ($3,000), former South Carolina Rep. Tom McMillen ($3,000), former Michigan state Sen. John Kelly ($2,000), former Missouri Sen. Richard Gephardt ($2,000), former New Mexico Rep. and Gov. Bill Richardson ($1,826), former Ohio Sen. John Glenn ($1,000), and former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray ($1,000).

According to OpenSecrets.org, Epstein made donations between 1990 and 2018 to both Democrats and Republicans, which totaled an estimated $184, 276. Of the $184,276 made in donations, $147,426 went to Democrats or left-leaning organizations, while $18,250 was received by Republicans or righ-leaning organizations.

Epstein made select donations to a few Republican candidates over the years including former New York Sen. Al D’Amato ($2,000), former New York Rep. Rick Lazio ($2,000), former Texas Rep. Phil Gramm ($2,000), former Sen. Bob Dole ($1,250), former Ohio Gov. John Kasich ($1,000), former Minnesota Sen. Rudy Boschwitz ($1,000), former President George Bush ($1,000), and former Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood ($1,000).