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A top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump allegedly tried to profit from his relationship with the new administration, asking potential appointees for large retainer fees in exchange for promoting them to get plum jobs, according to multiple reports on Monday.
An internal investigation by Trump’s own attorneys concluded Boris Epshteyn — a longtime aide who coordinated Trump’s criminal defenses in recent years — had asked at least two people for the monthly payments. One of those people was Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager who was recently tapped to be the next treasury secretary.
The Washington Post notes Epshteyn invited Bessent to lunch at a Palm Beach hotel in February, where he asked him to pay a monthly stipend of at least $30,000 to promote his reputation around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Bessent, who was gunning for the Treasury Department job, declined, but Epshteyn later asked him to invest $10 million in a basketball league. Bessent also declined that overture.
Later, Bessent told Trump’s attorneys he believed he was being criticized to those in the president-elect’s orbit after the November election. Epshteyn, The New York Times reports, told the billionaire it was “too late” for him to be hired for a cabinet position while allegedly calling himself “Boris Fucking Epshteyn.”
The pair also had a heated confrontation in the lobby at Mar-a-Lago last week, CNN added.
Epshteyn has denied the allegations.
“I am honored to work for President Trump and with his team,” he said in a statement to media outlets. “These fake claims are false and defamatory and will not distract us from Making America Great Again.”
The Times went on to detail further allegations, however. A second person included in the report compiled by Trump’s attorneys was a defense contractor, who told them Epshteyn asked for $100,000 per month during the ongoing transition. The report said the contractor felt hiring the man was “do or die” for their prospects.
They did not hire him and have feared some sort of retaliation, the report found.
A third person — former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) — also submitted a declaration to the Trump transition team saying he felt similarly in his own dealings with Epshteyn.
“Mr. Epshteyn’s overall tone and behavior gave me the impression of an implicit expectation to engage in business dealings with him before he would advocate for or suggest my appointment to the President,” Greitens wrote, according to reports from Just the News and CBS News.
The document concluded with findings that Epshteyn should no longer be as close to the Trump orbit. It’s unclear what will be done.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the president-elect, said the review was “standard practice” on Monday and said it was now completed.
“We are now moving ahead together as a team to help President Trump Make America Great Again,” Cheung said.
