Federal Election Commission records tie the money to Ayotte’s years in the Senate; one donor, billionaire Leon Black, faces a subpoenaed House deposition in September.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) accepted $13,500 in campaign contributions from four men identified as associates of Jeffrey Epstein in the Epstein files, according to a MeidasTouch report published July 16.
The contributions, documented in Federal Election Commission filings cited by the report, date to Ayotte’s US Senate career. Leon Black, Marc Rowan, and John Phelan each gave $2,700, while Leslie Wexner gave $5,400 through two maximum donations during the 2016 primary and general elections.
Black, a co-founder of Apollo Global Management, “often socialized and dined” with Epstein, the report said, and paid him at least $170 million for tax and estate planning advice between 2012 and 2017—all after Epstein’s 2008 sex crime conviction.
Black stepped down as Apollo’s chief executive in 2021 amid scrutiny of the relationship. A woman interviewed by federal investigators in the Epstein probe accused Black of sexual assault; he has denied wrongdoing.
Black sat for a voluntary interview with the House Oversight Committee in June, where he said he knew nothing of Epstein’s crimes until the financier’s 2019 sex trafficking charges. He left abruptly after the committee subpoenaed him over nondisclosure agreements with women who had accused him of misconduct.
A deposition, originally set for July 16, has been pushed to Sept. 3, and the committee says Black must turn over the agreements.
Epstein began managing Wexner’s fortune in the late 1980s and held sweeping control over large portions of it, according to the report. Wexner has said he cut ties with Epstein before the latter’s 2008 conviction and denied any knowledge of his crimes. Rowan met regularly with Epstein, including at the New York home where Epstein abused young girls. Phelan, President Donald Trump’s former Navy secretary, appeared on passenger logs for two transatlantic flights aboard Epstein’s private Boeing 727 in 2006.
Being named in the released Epstein files is not in itself proof of wrongdoing; the Justice Department has released thousands of documents, including emails, photographs and flight records naming figures across Epstein’s business, social and political circles.
The New Hampshire Democratic Party circulated the report in a July 16 statement.
“Kelly can’t run from the company her campaign keeps,” Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley said. “Kelly has made her priorities clear: protect her wealthy donors while working families pay the price.”
