Prominent Donors Who’ve Been Accused Of Sex Crimes, Ranked
Men with extreme power and wealth have long been linked with bad behavior. Bill Clinton. Anthony Weiner. Mark Foley. Mark Halperin. Blake Farenthold. Roy Moore. Charlie Rose. Matt Lauer.
With each passing year, a new, weirder sex scandal involving a politician or journalist or rich businessman emerges. Now more than ever, with the #MeToo era fueling the exposure, male donors are being exposed for heinous offenses, the most recent being the arrest of West Hollywood Democratic donor Ed Buck on Tuesday. Let’s take a closer look at some of the others.
7. Bryan Singer: Perhaps best known for Golden Globe winning Bohemian Rhapsody, this 53-year-old Hollywood director has been accused of raping a variety of boys as young as 13 and 17. In June, he paid out $150K for allegations of raping the 17-year-old stemming back to 2003. Singer has nonetheless denied the allegations. Singer is a longtime contributor to Democrats. By 2014, he had contributed more than $87 grand to Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton, and the DNC. In January, The Atlantic ran a piece with the stories of more accusers.
6. Ed Buck: This Democratic mega-donor is the latest in bizarre sex scandals. Buck, 65, has been charged with operating a drug den out of his West Hollywood home. According to news reports, last week, he shot a man up with methamphetamine and nearly killed him. Two other men have died at his home in the past two years. LA DA Jackie Lacey has called him a “violent, dangerous sexual predator.”
Buck allegedly lured younger men to his home to participate in his “sexual fetishes.” Buck has donated to a host of Dems, including, House Government Affairs Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
5. Jeffrey Epstein: Epstein was a major donor to Democrats, including Bill Clinton. Before his suicide in his jail cell in August, the 66-year-old billionaire — who was already a convicted sex offender stemming from abusing a 14-year-old girl — had been charged with sex trafficking. The feds nabbed him for abusing 36 girls. Epstein had ties to so many politicians, including Bill Clinton and President Trump, who can be seen in an embarrassing video whispering to Epstein at a party where he danced badly with several shapely women.
Since he’s dead, a judge concluded the charges against him in August. However, a female accuser who says Epstein abused her “countless times” is going after his estate in a new lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
4. George Alan Rekers: This guy is a piece of work. He’s an anti-gay activist who helped create the conservative Family Research Council. In 2011, he allegedly hired a male escort on Rentboy.com (yeah, there’s truly a website for everything). He was caught with the escort returning from a European rendezvous in which Rekers paid the 20-year-old hire for daily nude body rubs. Miami New Times originally broke the story about Rekers. The Christian right leader has advised a plethora of politicians in Congress, the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services.