A $250,000 marketing campaign contribution to Iowa State Auditor and gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand (D-IA) was made by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, whose visits to Jeffrey Epstein’s non-public island, New York townhouse, and New Mexico ranch are documented in emails launched by the Division of Justice.
The Iowa GOP flagged the donation in a February press launch, pointing to Hoffman’s well-documented historical past with Epstein. Hoffman, a longtime Democrat financier and founding father of LinkedIn, is featured in Justice Division paperwork detailing plans to go to Epstein’s non-public island, his New Mexico ranch, and his Manhattan townhouse. One e mail from Epstein’s assistant a few 2014 itinerary contains the observe, “Reid will take a Virgin America flight… to Fort Lauderdale,” a part of journey preparations described elsewhere within the paperwork as a visit to Epstein’s non-public island, Little St. James.
Additional emails launched by the DOJ present Epstein telling his assistant, “I’ve [Reid’s] passport. Discovered within the reward bag that they had given me.” In one other, Epstein casually references Hoffman in correspondence with Elon Musk, inquiring about vacation plans at St. Barts. Neither Hoffman nor some other figures talked about within the paperwork have been charged with any crime associated to Epstein.
Regardless of Hoffman’s previous admissions — together with acknowledging his go to to Epstein Island and a deliberate in a single day keep at Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2014 — he has defended the interactions as being related to MIT fundraising efforts. He later advised the Wall Avenue Journal, “It gnaws at me that, by lending my affiliation, I helped his status… I’m sorry for my private misjudgment.”
Hoffman helped fund E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit in opposition to Donald Trump by means of a nonprofit group he primarily financed, in response to courtroom disclosures. He has additionally funneled cash by means of numerous progressive nonprofit networks, together with the Good Info Basis—a company accused by lawyer Preston Moore of providing funds to social media influencers to supply anti-Trump content material, in obvious violation of federal tax legislation governing 501(c)(3) teams. In 2024, Hoffman’s longtime political adviser, Dmitri Mehlhorn, reportedly emailed journalists suggesting that the assassination try on Trump could have been staged—suggesting it was a “traditional Putin play”—and urged the media to discover the idea publicly.
Iowa Republicans are calling on Sand to handle the Hoffman contribution immediately. “Will he return the cash, or is that this who he actually solutions to? Iowans should know,” mentioned Iowa GOP spokesperson Jade Cichy.
This donation follows a $50,000 contribution Sand beforehand accepted from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire Democrat described by the Iowa GOP as “one of the vital liberal governors within the nation,” whose administration has enacted insurance policies together with taxpayer-funded gender transitions for minors, sanctuary protections for unlawful immigrants, a no-cash-bail legislation, and a few of the strictest gun management measures within the nation.
Throughout a current look on Iowa Press, Rob Sand advised the concept of a “two-tiered property-tax system,” the place property owned by non-residents could be taxed in a different way than property owned by Iowans. Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said the concept “clearly unconstitutional,” citing each the Iowa Structure’s requirement that every one legal guidelines “function uniformly” and the U.S. Structure’s Privileges and Immunities Clause, which prohibits discrimination in opposition to residents of different states. “Rob Sand isn’t breaking new floor; he’s suggesting breaking the legislation,” Kaufmann remarked. “Both Rob Sand is attempting to deceive Iowans into considering he’s discovered some new answer, or he doesn’t perceive the legislation he’s sworn to uphold. Which is worse?”
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