Sinema received 'maximum legal contribution' from Epstein-linked billionaire in 2018: report

United States Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) is embroiled in a tough 2024 reelection fight due to her defection from the Democratic Party last December and her controversial closeness with corporate lobbyists. This week, The Intercept's Daniel Boguslaw reported that Sinema also has ties to billionaire Leon Black, who stands accused of raping a sixteen-year-old girl inside now-deceased sex-trafficking financier Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse in 2002.

"In 2018, Black and his wife together made a $5,400 donation to Sinema's campaign, the maximum legal contribution at the time. Three years later, Black was out from the top post at Apollo Global Management, the firm he helped found, after it was revealed that he paid the disgraced financier Epstein more than $150 million for estate planning and tax services," Boguslaw wrote. "The Senate Finance Committee is currently investigating that payment and whether it involved tax evasion."

Support from "private equity leaders like Black quickly evolved into a full-scale industry feeding frenzy," Boguslaw explained, noting that "Sinema has raked in well over $3 million from investment and private equity firms in the past six years."

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Boguslaw learned from data furnished by Open Secrets that "employees at Apollo Global Management represented the single largest corporate donor base to Sinema’s campaign committee between 2017 and 2022, contributing a combined $172,025," adding that Sinema's "coziness with the industry has guided her hand against key Democratic priorities, including those designed to raise taxes on the wealthy in an effort to balance the federal budget. Sinema's obstinance has soured her standing in her own state."

Meanwhile, Boguslaw continued, "The Senate committee interrogating Black's finances has accused the former executive of consulting with Epstein to avoid hundreds of millions in taxes with payments that 'were inexplicably large; well in excess of what Black paid any other financial advisors and far higher than the median compensation of Fortune 500 CEOs at the time.'"

Boguslaw noted that the Senate probe commenced within days of Black's third rape allegation, which "alleges that Epstein confidant and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell had trafficked the then-16-year-old girl to that location. Black's lawyer denied the allegations and said that the plaintiff holds a 'vendetta' against him."

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Boguslaw's analysis is available at this link.