Democratic Party megadonor Reid Hoffman fashions himself a power broker in party politics.
Most recently, Hoffman wielded his clout with a $699,600 donation on April 26 to the Biden campaign's joint fundraising vehicle.
The LinkedIn co-founder and billionaire venture capitalist has another side he's not as keen to share, as The Wall Street Journal explained in a series of reports on the rich and powerful who welcomed Jeffrey Epstein with open arms after his 2008 conviction. (RELATED: House Committee Revives Sexual Misconduct Investigation Into MAGA Congressman)
That summer, a non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department spared Epstein from a potential life sentence.
Hoffman stayed at Epstein's private island in the Virgin Islands in 2014, six years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor. The beachfront estate is close to an airstrip on St. Thomas, where locals say the financier flew in underage girls. One airport employee speaking to Vanity Fair said, “he always tipped really well, so everyone overlooked it.” (RELATED: Prominent Liberal Visited Epstein's ‘Island Of Sin')
Despite an investigation by police that uncovered evidence Epstein molested more than 40 young women and girls, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida cut a sweetheart deal because he was told that Epstein “‘belonged to intelligence' and to leave it alone.”
By the time of Hoffman's visit, Epstein's island had acquired a notorious nickname: Pedophile Island.
Still, Hoffman survived his encounters with Epstein with reputation intact, among those in power, anyway.
Hoffman made headlines last month after Biden attended a fundraiser he hosted on behalf of the super PAC at the private residence of Shannon Hunt-Scott and Kevin Scott in Los Gatos, California.
Hoffman told The Journal in May it “gnaws at” him that his association with Epstein “helped his reputation, and thus delayed justice for his survivors.”
“My last interaction with Epstein was in 2015. Still, by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice,” Hoffman said in 2019. “For this, I am deeply regretful.”
The 2015 interaction was when he invited Epstein to a Silicon Valley dinner with tech industry leaders.
During the Trump administration, Hoffman built a big-money operation to defeat the then-president. In 2020, Vox reported that Hoffman's connections and closed-door meetings to collaborate with major donors and Biden campaign staff gave “him extraordinary agenda-setting power,” making him “one of the most influential Democratic donors of the Trump era.”
Such generosity comes with perks, including five White House visits last year.
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