Moulton gives away cash from donor linked to Epstein

Representative Seth Moulton Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/File/Getty Images

Representative Seth Moulton has donated to charity $5,000 his political action committee received from a billionaire hedge fund manager, Glenn Dubin, after accusations emerged from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims that Dubin was among the prominent men Epstein directed her to have sex with.

Moulton’s move to expunge Dubin’s cash speaks to the breadth and reach the Epstein saga has had, which has entangled others — to far greater degrees — from Harvard and MIT, to the growing tally of men whose names surfaced recently in unsealed court papers.

That includes Dubin, who was accused by Virginia Roberts Giuffre of being one of the men Epstein directed her to have sex with, according to documents released as part of her 2015 federal defamation suit against Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell is the longtime Epstein confidante who has been accused of recruiting young girls for him.

Dubin, who isn’t facing charges, forcefully denied the allegations.

“Glenn and [his wife] Eva Dubin categorically reject the allegations against them in the unsealed court documents, and have evidence refuting those allegations,” Daniel Goldstein, a spokesman for Dubin, said in an e-mailed statement.

A financier who ran the hedge fund Highbridge Capital Management, Dubin and his wife have contributed $80,600 over five years to various fund-raising initiatives Moulton created, including Moulton’s own campaign, his Serve America political action committee, and a joint fund-raising committee he set up to support fellow military veterans running for Congress last year.

Those fund-raising operations raised millions of dollars last year, and, in turn, helped boost Moulton’s own political profile ahead of his brief presidential bid this summer. First elected to Congress in 2014, Moulton is now running for reelection in the Sixth Congressional District, where he faces at least two primary challengers.

But Moulton’s campaign stressed that the Salem Democrat does not have a personal relationship with Dubin. The two connected through Harvard University’s fund-raising network — Moulton is a Harvard grad, Dubin a Harvard donor. Moulton said he cannot recall when or where they met, according to a campaign aide.

Dubin did not donate to Moulton’s presidential campaign, but has made contributions to other candidates, including Pete Buttigieg, Steve Bullock, and Michael Bennet.

Matt Corridoni, a Moulton spokesman, said shortly after the congressman learned of the allegations against Dubin in August, he donated a $5,000 contribution Dubin made to the Serve America PAC to the Polaris Project, an anti-human-trafficking nonprofit.

“Congressman Moulton was disgusted by the allegations” against Dubin, Corridoni said.

The bulk of Dubin’s political largesse to Moulton-created committees flowed into the Serve America Victory Fund, the joint fund-raising operation Moulton created. It raised $4.7 million in the last two-year fund-raising cycle, including two donations worth $60,000 from Dubin, with all money then filtering to candidates the fund was supporting.

Those weren’t the largest donations to the Victory Fund. The committee received several six-figure contributions, including from Carl Ferenbach, cofounder of Berkshire Partners, and Joshua Bekenstein, cochairman of Bain Capital, who together gave more than $237,000.

But while Dubin has sprinkled donations to candidates and committees for decades, the $50,000 check he gave the Serve America Victory Fund in February 2018 was the highest single donation he’s ever given, matching contributions he made to the Hillary Victory Fund and the Senate Majority PAC, according to federal records.

Moulton, in a phone interview, said the big Dubin contributions were intended to help bolster other candidates that benefited from the fund-raising agreement. “He supported the people in the joint fund-raising committee. That’s simply how it works,” Moulton said.

Dubin had first donated $5,200 to Moulton in 2013 as he mounted a primary challenge to then-Representative John F. Tierney. Two years later, Dubin and his wife each gave $2,700 when Moulton first sought reelection.

A source close to Dubin said the financier thought Moulton, a veteran of four military tours, was an “impressive young man,” prompting his contributions.

But Moulton is no longer soliciting donations from him, according to his campaign. Corridoni said Moulton is not surrendering other funds Dubin gave because the money to the Serve America Victory Fund immediately flowed to other candidates, while the earlier donations to his congressional campaign were spent on the 2014 and 2016 elections.