In the 6^th District Congressional race, Republican Ralph Alvarado accuses Democrat Zach Dembo of taking Epstein-related donations from Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn.   I applaud him for bringing out these facts.     I think it is important to point out Alvarado’s far more serious Epstein ties.

No one has a more serious connection to Epstein than Apollo and its founder/CEO, Leon Black.   From his conviction in 2008 to his death in 2019 Leon Black provided Epstein with over $158 million for “tax advice”, despite Epstein having no qualifications in that area.  The Epstein Files contain over 8,000 mentions of Black.  Current Apollo CEO Marc Rowan is also prominently featured in the Epstein files.   Apollo-owned Lifepoint Health gave a $10,000 donation to Alvarado.

Alvarado received substantial funding from the MAGA Inc. Super PAC, whose donors include many Epstein buddies and those broadly in the Epstein Class.   Howard Lutnick, current Commerce Secretary and Epstein neighbor, gave MAGA Inc. $8.75mm and lied about visiting Epstein Island in 2012, claiming he cut ties in 2005.     Ron Lauder a $5mm donor to MAGA Inc. who is best known for pushing Trumps “Greenland” initiative  but files show that Epstein helped him establish an entity for him and Leon Black to jointly purchase a valuable painting which got 961 mentions in the Epstein files.    Stephen Schwatzman of Blackstone, another $5mm MAGA donor, has only 179 mentions in the Epstein file.   Marc Rowan of Apollo gave $1mm to MAGA as well.