DOJ alleges Democrat senators benefited from 'dark money' from megadonor Hoffman

The Justice Department alleged in a letter to the Senate on Wednesday night that Democrat megadonor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman has funneled dark money through his network to benefit two U.S. senators who portray themselves as crusaders against such unaccountable contributions.  

The probe into Hoffman and his “political donor ecosystem” was spurred by a letter from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, following up on the Oct. 7 testimony of Attorney General Pam Bondi to the committee. 

In exchanges with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee's top Democrat, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., over the Epstein files, Bondi confronted the senators and accused them of taking campaign donations from Hoffman, which both later denied in a letter to Grassley.

Hoffman’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, who died a disgraced financier and sex offender, were previously reported as early as 2019. 

Durbin, Whitehouse and nine other Democratic senators accused Bondi of deflecting questions about the Epstein files by falsely accusing Durbin and Whitehouse of receiving campaign contributions from Hoffman. 

“[Bondi] sidestepped questions about her role in the Jeffrey Epstein coverup by falsely accusing Ranking Member Durbin and Senator Whitehouse of taking campaign donations from Reid Hoffman,” the Democratic senators wrote in an Oct. 24 letter. 

But, the Justice Department’s letter says publicly available evidence shows Durbin and Whitehouse have indeed appeared to benefit from the largesse of Hoffman’s political contributions to PACs and campaign committees.

“[​The] evidence paints a clear picture that Reid Hoffman has established a dark-money empire that channels anonymous donations through nonprofits and PACs to influence federal elections and judicial nominations,” Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis wrote to Grassley. 

“Additionally, Ranking Member Durbin, Senator Whitehouse, and other Senate Judiciary Committee members have apparently benefited from this system, and their continued public attacks on ‘dark money’ while accepting Mr. Hoffman’s indirect financial support are troubling,” he also wrote.

You can read the letter here:

In the letter, the Justice Department pointed to over 1,650 contributions, in excess of $76 million, to Democratic and Democrat-aligned causes as evidence that Hoffman is at the center of a liberal dark money ecosystem.

According to Federal Election Commission records the DOJ cited, Durbin and Whitehouse have been indirect recipients of Hoffman’s donations, the letter alleged. 

Neither Durbin nor Whitehouse returned a request Wednesday for comment. Hofffman could not be reached for comment.

The campaign finance tracking site Open Secrets estimates at least $1 billion in dark money has been spent in elections since 2010.

"Dark money refers to spending meant to influence political outcomes where the source of the money is not disclosed. Here’s how dark money makes its way into elections," Open Secrets explained. "Politically active nonprofits such as 501(c)(4)s are generally under no legal obligation to disclose their donors even if they spend to influence elections. When they choose not to reveal their sources of funding, they are considered dark money groups."

"Opaque nonprofits and shell companies may give unlimited amounts of money to super PACs. While super PACs are legally required to disclose their donors, some of these groups are effectively dark money outlets when the bulk of their funding cannot be traced back to the original donor," it added.

DOJ's letter states that the records it gathered show Hoffman gave $90,000 to the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee since 2016, which has given in-kind contributions to Whitehouse in his 2017 Senate campaign but spent $108,000 to support Whitehouse’s 2018 and 2024 election campaigns. Whitehouse’s campaign also received contributions from Common Ground PAC in 2022, to which Hoffman has contributed thousands of dollars. 

The FEC records also show Hoffman gave $60,000 since 2019 to the Democratic Party of Illinois, which supported the Friends of Dick Durbin Committee. 

Whitehouse and Durbin have been staunch critics of alleged Republican dark money groups. Durbin cosponsored a bill introduced by Whitehouse, the DISCLOSE Act, that would require any organization spending money in elections, including super PACs and 501(c)(4) “dark money” groups, to disclose donors who have given $10,000 or more during a cycle. 

“A toxic flood of dark money has given billionaires and special interests a powerful way to rig the system secretly in their favor – dark money even enabled these same interests to capture our Supreme Court,” Whitehouse said in a statement when he reintroduced the bill in 2023. “It’s time to pass the DISCLOSE Act to end the corrupting influence of dark-money spending and make government work better for the American people.”

The Justice Department said Hoffman “reportedly maintains several deep ties to liberal dark-money groups” that include the Aphorism Foundation, the New America Foundation, and Patriotic Republic. The agency says Aphorism serves as Hoffman’s “San Francisco-based giving vehicle” from which he supports a variety of left-leaning dark money groups. 

Aphorism supports the New America Foundation, according to its donor page. Hoffman also serves on its board of directors. The Open Technology Institute, which is a project of New America, openly supported the Digital Equity Foundation Act of 2023, which was cosponsored by Durbin. 

Hoffman served as president of Patriotic Republic, a 501(c)(4) organization, until at least 2023. In 2019, it awarded $4 million to other liberal nonprofits, including $2 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) fiscal sponsorship organization created by consulting firm Arabella Advisors. 

Patriotic Republic gave $2 million to ACRONYM, which produces digital media campaigns for Democratic-aligned causes. Sixteen Thirty, which was labeled by Politico as a “liberal dark money behemoth,” raised $140 million in the run-up to the 2020 election. 

“Given the Ranking Member’s and Senator’s professed concern over connections to this Epstein ally, they should be equally disturbed by the vast sums of funding flowing to their colleagues’ campaigns, committees, and affiliated dark-money organizations,” the assistant attorney general wrote. 

Last month, as bipartisan pressure grew for the Trump administration to release the Justice Department case files related to Epstein, President Donald Trump ordered Bondi’s agency to investigate any Democrats mentioned in the files, including Hoffman. 

Emails show Hoffman communicated several times with Epstein. For example, in March 2017, Epstein emailed Hoffman suggesting he start a “huge public charity” that could continue the work of agencies or recipients of federal funds cut off by President Trump. Epstein’s calendars also appear to show that Hoffman visited his private island in the Caribbean. He reportedly told the Wall Street Journal that he attended an MIT fundraising event there.

"Hoffman, in my opinion, should be under investigation,” Trump said after announcing the probe. “He's a sleazebag.” 

In a statement to Axios in 2019, Hoffman said he was “deeply regretful” over his help “to repair [Epstein’s] reputation and perpetuate injustice.”