Reid Hoffman Pours Millions Into James Talarico’s Senate Bid
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, whose past association with Jeffrey Epstein has drawn renewed scrutiny, has contributed at least $11.5 million to Lone Star Rising PAC, a super PAC supporting Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. According to federal campaign-finance filings cited by the New York Post, Hoffman gave the PAC $10 million in June after Talarico defeated Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary, on top of earlier funding. The PAC had already spent heavily against Crockett and is now backing Talarico against Republican Ken Paxton. The connection is politically awkward for Talarico because he has repeatedly attacked what he calls the “Epstein Class” and has criticized Paxton over what he described as an “Epstein-style sweetheart deal” in an unrelated child sexual-abuse case, while also campaigning against super PACs and billionaire influence in politics. Talarico’s campaign said it has no control over outside super PAC contributions because federal law prohibits coordination.
Hoffman’s relationship with Epstein is the central reason the contribution has become an issue. Epstein-related records show that Hoffman interacted with Epstein years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction, including emails discussing meetings, gifts and possible visits to Epstein properties. Hoffman has said he knew Epstein through fundraising efforts connected to MIT, regrets the relationship, and supports releasing information that could help Epstein’s victims. But contemporaneous emails indicate Hoffman was aware of Epstein’s criminal history while continuing to associate with him, including a 2013 exchange in which Joi Ito said he had discussed Epstein’s jail time with Hoffman. That history now creates an obvious vulnerability for Talarico: a candidate publicly condemning wealthy people connected to Epstein is benefiting from millions of dollars in outside spending financed by one of the billionaires whose own Epstein ties have been repeatedly documented.
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Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein associate Reid Hoffman bankrolling James Talarico's Texas Senate run
Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
Epstein Chronicles. When we talk about people that were close
to Jeffrey Epstein, one of those people, most certainly, was
Reid Hoffman. Now, of course, we don't hear enough about
him in the legacy media when it comes to his
relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, but we should. And this kind
of falls under the same umbrella as what we hear
about Stacey Plaskett, which is nothing. And when you want
to be taken seriously... as somebody that actually cares about
justice when it comes to this issue, you can't pick
a side. It has to be accountability for everybody, whether
it's Stacey Plaskett, whether it's Reid Hoffman, whether it's Les Wexner,
or whether it's Leon Black. Now, of course, not everybody
was involved to the same level as everybody else. And
we have to use some discernment, right? And we have
to base our opinions on what we know as far
as evidence goes. But when it comes to Reid Hoffman,
this man's out here bankrolling a whole ass political campaign
down in Texas. And the political campaign that he's bankrolling
is James Tallarico. Now look, I don't have any personal
beef with Mr. Tallarico, if you will. But I think
that it's hypocritical as fuck for the Democrats to run
around chirping all day about Jeffrey Epstein running ads here,
running ads there. But they have nothing to say about
Reid Hoffman throwing his millions around. infecting the race with
more Jeffrey Epstein-related money? That shouldn't be a bigger issue
for people? Well, he has a D in front of
his name, so it's okay. No, bitch, I'm here to
tell you, it's not okay. And I don't care what
stupid team he's on. The fact that he's taking money
from Reid Hoffman needs to be talked about. So today,
that's exactly what we're going to do. And to do that,
we have an article from the New York Post. Headline,
Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Associate Reid Hoffman Bankrolling James Tallarico's Texas
Senate Run. This article was authored by Josh Christensen. A
former associate of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is funding Democrat
James Tallarico's run for the U.S. Senate to the tune
of at least $ 11. 5 million contributed to a super PAC
backing the Texas candidate. Now, flip the script. Imagine if
Leon Black was backing Ken Paxton. Can you imagine the outrage,
the uproar? And that's the same kind of energy I
want to see from people who support Tallarico, who support,
you know, the Democrats and their campaign to unmask Epstein's associates.
If you can't clean up your own backyard, don't pop
your head over the wall and talk about mine. LinkedIn
co-founder Reid Hoffman gave the bulk of that sum in
the form of a $ 10 million check cut to Lone
Star Rising Pack this past June. Months after, Tallarico won
a bad-tempered primary over Representative Jasmine Crockett, according to Federal
Election Commission filings. Yo, that's the best we can do
down there in Texas? Jasmine Crockett? And Mr. Tallarico? And
that buffoon Mr. Paxton? That's the best we can do
down there, Texas? Come on, I think you guys can
do better. Lone Star Rising spent nearly $ 4. 5 million opposing
Crockett ahead of the March primary. and is now ramping
up spending against Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton as
Tallarico bids to become the first Democrat elected to represent
the state in the Senate since 1988, while vowing to
ban the very organizations from which his campaign is benefiting.
Now's gonna come the part that some of you are
gonna take umbrage with, and that is the fact that Mr.
Tallarico is fugazi. Everything about him's fake, everything about him's insincere,
and everything that he says and does is part of
the plan, part of the script. There's nothing organic about him.
And the fact that he's taking money from Reid Hoffman
while chirping about Epstein tells me everything I need to
know about Mr. Tallarico. And then you look at the
fact that he's willing to take this money while simultaneously
running against the very source of it. Tallarico has frequently
attacked Paxton over an Epstein-style sweetheart deal his office reached.
to secure a guilty plea from Adam Dean Hoffman, a
Waco lawyer initially charged with felony sexual abuse of a
young child. Well, that person should be put on a
helicopter and thrown in a volcano. If he was convicted
of that and a jury of his peers found him guilty,
strap that son of a bitch right in next to Epstein.
Hoffman's trial ended in a mistrial and his alleged victim
declined to testify again. Hoffman reached a deal with prosecutors
and allowing him to plead guilty to misdemeanor, indecent assault,
and displaying harmful material to a minor. He was sentenced
to 60 days in jail and was released after 29
days and did not have to register as a sex offender. Oh,
that's just great. That's fantastic. Way to go, Mr. Paxton.
Way to go, Texas. You know, we hear all this
stuff about Texas and how they don't mess around and
don't mess with Texas. Seems like everybody messes with Texas.
So what are they even talking about down there in Texas?
I think a little bit of that mystique they had,
that veneer, has worn off. Because if Texas was the
kind of place they tell us it is, a guy
like this would not be getting 60 days in jail
and not having to register. What are we, in New Mexico?
The Epstein class has no place in Texas, Tallarico has said,
insinuating that wealthy and powerful individuals have been able to
evade justice because of their association with Epstein, who counted scholars, celebrities...
and world leaders among his coterie before committing suicide, allegedly,
in a Manhattan federal lockup while awaiting trial on sex
trafficking charges in August of 2019. Well, wouldn't that be
your boy, Reid Hoffman? I would think that he qualifies
as an Epstein associate. You know, the guy that's funding
your whole campaign. Do these people even hear themselves talk? Like,
who's coming up with these campaign runs? How about being
consistent How about just doing what you say you're going
to do? And how about, hear me out here, being
genuine and truthful? Tallarico has also called for Paxton's office
to release the Hoffman files, imitating advocacy for the release
of the so-called Epstein files by the U.S. Department of
Justice last year. Yo, if the hypocrisy was any thicker,
we wouldn't be able to breathe. Hoffman appears many times
in those files, both interacting with the disgraced financier and
talking about trips to Epstein's infamous private Caribbean island, as
well as his Manhattan penthouse and New Mexico ranch. Hoffman
and Epstein were a lot closer than people are saying.
And I know that goes counter to what people want
to talk about, but that's the thing about this podcast.
I don't really care what anybody else wants. You want
to talk about something else? Here's an idea. Start your
own podcast. Because around these parts, everybody gets it. I
don't care what side of the aisle you're on. I
don't care what you're up to. I don't care what
kind of rhetoric you're spitting. What it comes down to is,
does your action match your words? And if it does,
then I really don't care what side of the aisle
you're on. As long as you're pursuing justice and transparency
in an honest manner, then we're allies. But if you're not,
then prepare for this verbal bombing run. Jeffrey has exquisite
taste in people, myself accepted, Hoffman wrote of Epstein in
a September 2014 email, in which the financier connected him
with Hardeep Singh Puri, then India's ambassador to the United Nations,
and currently the country's oil minister. Other emails disclosed that
Hoffman told Epstein on Christmas Eve 2014 that he'd mailed
gifts that included a surfer statue for the money manager's
Little St. James Island and an ice cream, either for
yourself or Or for the girls. What does that mean, Mr. Hoffman? Mr.
Big Money Bags Reid Hoffman? Mr. Big Shot Democrat Reid Hoffman?
All that yapping. All that talk about everybody else. Meanwhile,
this scumbag has his own Epstein skeletons rising up from
his closet. In August 2015, Epstein claimed in an email
to have had a wild dinner with Hoffman and fellow
tech moguls Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel. Yes,
they had that, the billionaire's edge dinner. Hoffman claimed in
February's statement that he only engaged with Epstein to fundraise
for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, even though several of
those meetings occurred after Epstein was forced to register as
a sex offender in 2008 after pleading guilty to soliciting
a minor for sex in Palm Beach, Florida. First of all,
a minor can't be a prostitute, okay? Let's just get
that clear. So what Epstein was doing was diddling little kids.
And I don't care if you gave him a hundred
bucks or a million bucks. That's what was happening. The
victims of Epstein's abhorrent and vile actions deserve all the
information they're seeking. And I continue to call on President
Trump to deliver that for them. Hoffman said on X
at the time, well, how about we start with you
giving us a full breakdown of your relationship with Epstein?
Open your books completely. Let us see all the receipts.
Let us see all the deposits. Let's see everything. You
want transparency? It starts with you, Mr. Hoffman, okay? A
rep for Hoffman later explained that the December 2014 email
referencing the girls was discussing adult members of Epstein's internal
team who referred to themselves as the girls. You mean
the women that were being abused? Now look, there's no
doubt that they were abusing girls themselves. But if you
listen to Sarah Kellan Vickers and you believe her, then
that makes Reid Hoffman, well, a liar. Can't have it
both ways. There have been no explanations as to what
made the 2015 Dinner Wild from the other attendees, if
such a gathering even took place. Other contemporaneous emails indicate
that Hoffman was made aware of Epstein's time behind bars
in Florida. Did Reed follow up on the jail? Answer surprise.
Epstein wrote to entrepreneur Joyito in a July 2013 email. Yo,
this Reed Hoffman dude is slovenly as fuck. I'm sorry,
but come on. You have all this money and that's
what you look like? Your bitch ass can't hit the gym?
Go on a hike? Go kayaking? Whatever the fuck it
might be, get a Peloton. Bro, you're a slovenly fat slob.
All that money, all that power, all that reach, and
that's what you look like. Now look, far be it
from me to talk about somebody's looks. That's not what
I'm saying. I'm not saying, oh, he's ugly, this, that,
the other thing, okay? I'm talking about not caring about
his health. And I can't even imagine having all that money,
all that power. You can do whatever you want, whenever
you want to do it, and you're not in shape.
I mean, look at like Zuckerberg. Say what you want
about the guy, in pretty good shape. Jeff Bezos, same thing. Well,
Elon Musk. That dude has a weird-ass body shape. I
don't even know what it is. But at least he
doesn't look like Reid Hoffman. And listen, if Reid Hoffman
was a regular dude, you know, a professor or whatever,
no big deal. That's what happens, right? You get older.
You gain some weight. I get it. But when you
have the money that Reid Hoffman has, in my opinion,
there's no excuse for it. Unless you have a medical condition.
But you have all this money, all this time. Bro,
get on the treadmill. Put down the donuts. About your
jail thing, replied Ito. who directed MIT's Media Lab at
the time. I talked to him about it, and he
got it. He doesn't judge people. Oh, of course he doesn't, Mr.
Reid Hoffman. The Texas Senate race is shaping up to
be one of the most expensive races in the midterm cycle,
with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on ads. Oh,
there's no doubt it's contentious as hell. And Tallarico is
making up good ground. But that 10, 11-day disappearance from
the campaign trail? That's going to loom large. And there's
going to be some ads that come out using that.
So that's something that Tallarico and his team is going
to have to deal with. How they're going to do that,
I don't know. What they're going to say, I don't know.
They said it was the flu, but I don't think
people are buying it. So it's going to be interesting
to see what happens as far as Tallarico and how
he's managing the rest of this race. Our campaign has
no control over contributions to any super PAC. Federal law
prohibits coordination between political campaigns and outside entities, Tallarico's spokesperson
JT Ennis told the Post. Oh, well, in that case,
we know it never happens, right? Right? The only way
to get big money out of our politics is to
reject politicians like Ken Paxton, who want corporations and billionaires
to decide our elections, not Texans, added Ennis. While Ken
Paxton works to enrich himself and his donors, James will
remain the only candidate in this race. fighting to ban
super PACs, ban corporate PACs, ban congressional stock trading, and
tax billionaires so we can fix this broken corrupt political system. Currently,
Tallarico is beating Paxton by 3.1 percentage points, according to
the latest RealClearPolitics polling average. Representatives for Lone Star Rising
PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
So listen, if you're going to be upset about people
that were enabling Jeffrey Epstein to people that were around
Jeffrey Epstein with a lot of money and power then
you have to be upset about Reid Hoffman and then
the natural progression from there is why would James Tallarico
accept money from one of Jeffrey Epstein's enablers and I
think that's a question that the people of Texas want
an answer to and now that the race is coming
down to the final weeks it's going to be real
interesting to see how the James Tallarico campaign navigates through
this minefield so like usual we'll be keeping an eye
on it. And when we have some more information to share,
we'll get it added to the catalog. All the information
that goes with this episode can be found in the
description box.