Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he will donate the same amount of money he received from accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The New York Democrat received thousands in donations from the 66-year-old Epstein in the 1990s. A Schumer spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that the senator would donate an equivalent amount of money that he received from Epstein to various groups.
“While these campaign accounts closed about 20 years ago, and even then the campaign never controlled the two political action committees (PACs), Senator Schumer is donating an equal sum to anti-sex trafficking and anti-violence against women groups,” the spokesperson said.
The groups that Schumer intends to donate to include Safe Horizon, Sanctuary for Families, Crime Victims Treatment Center, and the John Jay College Foundation.
According to Federal Election Commission filings compiled by Open Secrets, Schumer received $7,000 in donations from the disgraced financier from 1992 to 1997. Epstein also donated to a number of other Democratic political figures, including former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State John Kerry. He also donated to Republicans, including former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole.
FBI and New York police arrested Epstein on Saturday when his plane landed in New Jersey from Paris. Epstein has been charged with one count of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
Epstein has been accused of sexually abusing children for years and had previously agreed to spent 13 months in a Florida jail after pleading guilty to two state-level prostitution solicitation charges. Despite that, Epstein spent much of that time on work release.
The deal was reached with federal prosecutors led by then-U.S. attorney and current Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta and required Epstein to register as a sex offender and pay restitution to some of the victims. Victims have accused Acosta of cutting the deal without speaking with them first, with a federal judge ruling in February that the deal violated the Crime Victim’s Rights Act.
