Young Republicans busted for racist chat stiffed NY hotel on booze, food bill after 'lavish' party

14h

Peter Giunta and Andrew Giuliani, Image via Wikimedia Commons / New York Young Republicans (Creative Commons 2.0 License).

Besides thousands of leaked chat messages left behind by a group of young Republicans, members of the New York State branch also left unpaid bills from "extravagant gatherings" before the group disbanded in disgrace, according to Syracuse.com.

At two of those events, the NY State Young Republicans "ran up bills of more than $23,000 over a weekend at a Syracuse hotel – spending big on a three-course plated dinner with filet mignon and open bars — but then didn’t pay," according to records obtained by Syracuse.com.

According to the report, The Embassy Suites Hotel at Destiny USA hosted the group’s Teddy Roosevelt awards dinner last year, and made a "rare exception to its rule for customers to pay in advance of using its banquet facilities."

"But the hotel’s goodwill quickly evaporated as its managers spent four months trying to collect what it was owed," according to billing documents and 110 pages of internal emails reviewed by Syracuse.com.

Peter Giunta, the club president who stepped down last month offered the hotel's "increasingly urgent emails" with a "series of excuses," reports the website. Shortly after his resignation, Politico reported that his group owed $14,000 for a 2023 holiday party in Manhattan.

Giunta was publicly identified as having made antisemitic remarks, including jokes about gas chambers, in the leaked Telegram chats.

"The Young Republicans’ previously unreported debt in Syracuse followed on the heels of the Manhattan party and a trip by Giunta and club leaders to Nashville last year when he was campaigning for a position to lead the Young Republicans on a national level," reports Syracuse.com.

In a since-deleted social media post, a former Trump campaign staffer said the group owed $7,000 to Redneck Riviera, a bar and live music venue in Nashville owned by country singer and MAGA diehard John Rich.

A list of the group's Syracuse expenses included charges for meals at Dave and Busters at Destiny USA ($95.45) and the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que ($38.35) and a tab for $198 at the Gilded Club cocktail bar in Armory Square.

The report also listed expenses for meals at P.F. Chang’s ($112.61) and Texas de Brazil ($84.25), both located at the mall the that houses the Embassy Suites.

Giunta told the hotel to prepare 125 dinners, a three-course meal that cost $65 per plate for steak and $38 per plate for chicken, for the $200-per-person event, according to bills viewed by Syracuse.com.

Less than half showed up and the hotel ended up throwing away 66 dinners that were charged to the New York State Young Republicans, Syracuse.com reports.

The club also ran up a tab of $5,794 at the open bar that included “deluxe cocktails.” A separate bar tab totaled $2,052 for the opening night reception, records show.

“I’m not surprised you’re writing this story,” Danielle Neuser, former director of sales at the Destiny Embassy Suites, said when contacted by a Syracuse.com reporter. “I just knew based on how he handled us that he was doing that in many different places. I think this kid is so full of BS and just was making up answers to kind of keep people at bay.”

Neuser, now president of the Greater Syracuse Hospitality and Tourism Association, said it was "only the second time in her 30-plus years in the business that she could recall a client that made so many excuses over a prolonged period for not paying their bill."

“I saw through him from the day before the event, where he said he was going to come with a check,” she said. “And then he had like 13 excuses: That somebody forgot the checkbook and he didn’t have it. Then there was a fraud. And their bank account was compromised. It was like this kid had every excuse in the book.”

Former Onondaga County Republican Committee chair Benedicte Doran told Syracuse.com that she tried to get Giunta to pay, too.

“I did everything I could to get the guy to do the right thing, and he didn’t do it,” Doran said. “He’s just a bad guy.”

Only after the hotel banned Giunta, and club members from future visits to the property and threatened a lawsuit, did he come up with "sporadic payments that eventually whittled the debt down to $7,257.14," the documents show.

“I am shocked and saddened by the alleged past wrongdoings that we have uncovered, and it is my duty to the members of and donors to this organization to restore its financial stability,” the state club's vice chair Becky Oliveira said in a statement.

The most recent financial disclosure report from September shows the club in the red, with unpaid debts of $38,560.

Onondaga County Young Republicans chapter chair Ethan LaMontagne told Syracuse.com he was unaware of the unpaid bills in Syracuse. He said the local chapter suspended its involvement with Giunta and the statewide organization after the group’s chat was made public.

“We are disgusted by the racism, antisemitism, bigotry, and homophobia that was revealed,” LaMontagne said in a statement. “There is no place for this kind of hatred within the Republican Party or our movement. As Young Republicans, we stand by integrity, respect, and the principles of liberty and opportunity for all.”

From Your Site Articles