(…) The constant trickle of bad press has resulted in some charities and political candidates keeping their distance from the perverted hedge-funder.
In 2006, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said he’d distribute Epstein’s $50,000 campaign donation to charities throughout the state, while New York’s gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer and attorney general hopeful Mark Green returned donations of $50,000 and $10,000, respectively, from the billionaire.
In 2015, nonprofits including Florida’s Ballet Palm Beach told Reuters they’d no longer accept Epstein’s money following Giuffre’s headline-grabbing allegations. “The further I can keep myself from anything like that the better,” the ballet’s founder said.
When Epstein tried donating to House Democrats last October, they quickly returned a $10,000 offering from the political pariah. One spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told The Daily Beast, “Without second thought, the DCCC immediately refunded this unsolicited donation.”
Still, others have quietly welcomed Epstein’s cash. His former charity, the C.O.U.Q. Foundation (also known as the Florida Science Foundation), donated $25,000 to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s charity, according to C.O.U.Q.’s 2006 tax return. The group is listed among past and present donors on the Clinton Foundation’s website.
Harvard also kept a $6.5-million check from Epstein to fund the university’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, the Harvard Crimson reported in 2006. (Read more: The Daily Beast, 11/04/2019) (Archive)
(Timeline editor’s note: As of the date this timeline entry was published on October 28, 2021, the C.O.U.Q. Foundation is still listed on the Clinton Foundation website as a donor.)