Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff has spent months attacking Republicans as members of an “Epstein class” of untouchable elites. His own campaign records show he took the maximum legal donation, $7,000, from a billionaire who admits he stayed overnight on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.
The donor is Reid Hoffman, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Greylock partner. Hoffman gave Ossoff’s campaign the $7,000 max and separately donated $1 million to New Engagement PAC, a Georgia-based political group run by former Ossoff senior advisor Alexander Edelman. That PAC has already spent nearly $500,000 attacking Ossoff’s Republican opponent, Rep. Mike Collins, according to September FEC filings.
Hoffman has not been accused of any wrongdoing tied to Epstein. But his own account of the relationship is on the record. His first known meeting with Epstein came on July 19, 2013, almost five years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to state charges of soliciting prostitution and procuring a minor for prostitution. MIT records show Hoffman, then a member of the university’s Media Lab Advisory Council, met with Epstein on campus alongside other faculty.
The following year Hoffman traveled to Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James, and stayed the night as part of an MIT fundraising trip, according to the Wall Street Journal and a recent podcast appearance reported by Business Insider. Hoffman’s own comment on it: “Note to self: Google before going.” The Journal also reported that later in 2014 Hoffman sent Epstein ice cream, writing it was for him or “for the girls.”
Hoffman has since apologized, saying: “By agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice. For this, I am deeply regretful.”
Collins Draws the Line
Ossoff has built his re-election message around opposing big money in politics. Earlier this year he said: “We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich… this is the Epstein class, ruling our country. They are the elites they pretend to hate.”
Collins told Fox News Digital that Ossoff has one choice: return Hoffman’s money or stop making the attack.
“He doesn’t care about our state; he doesn’t represent the people of the state or the values of our state. If he did, he certainly wouldn’t be associating himself with some of the Epstein friends out there, just taking money directly, maxed out, from Reid Hoffman who was in the Epstein files as an Epstein friend,” Collins said.
Collins added there’s no ambiguity about who’s funding the campaign: “I could see it now if somebody gave you 20 bucks and you didn’t know who it was, but when somebody maxes out to your campaign directly, you know who they are, but yet you still take it. And then you turn around, and you go out there like a hypocrite, and you talk about President Trump and the Epstein files when you, in fact, are tied to it.”
Collins also argued Ossoff is using the Georgia Senate seat as a stepping stone. “It’s very clear that this guy is just using Georgia as a platform,” he said. “He is going to get as much money as he can. He does not care where it comes from.”
“So, we are here to condemn and demand that John Ossoff condemn Reid Hoffman, refund that donation, and tell Reid Hoffman we demand that you stop funding his campaign,” Collins said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Ossoff’s campaign, to Hoffman through Greylock, and to New Engagement PAC and Edelman for comment.
