Reid Hoffman Visited Epstein's Island. Democrats' Super PAC Took His $8.5 Million, Then Ran Epstein Attack Ads

Democrats' main super PAC for House races is spending the final weeks before the midterms telling voters that Republicans protected Jeffrey Epstein. The single biggest personal check behind that PAC came from a billionaire who went to Epstein's island.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman gave House Majority PAC $5 million on Sept. 10 and another $3.5 million on Sept. 22, according to the PAC's own Federal Election Commission filing, filed Oct. 20. That $8.5 million makes him the PAC's largest individual donor of the 2026 cycle. No other person in its itemized FEC receipts comes close; the next biggest, Fred Eychaner, gave $5 million.

Three weeks after Hoffman's second check, the PAC rolled out its Epstein ads.

The ads

On Oct. 13, House Majority PAC announced new TV ads in 34 districts. Two of them were about Epstein. In Arizona, an ad called "Justice" hits Republican Rep. Eli Crane over "votes to block the release of the Epstein Files." In Pennsylvania, an ad called "Predators" accuses Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan of "protecting child predators by voting against releasing the Epstein Files," according to the PAC's announcement.

It isn't a new line for the group. In July 2025 the PAC published what it called the "GOP Epstein Simps Target List," naming dozens of vulnerable House Republicans. "This is who the GOP really is: a party that protects the elite, powerful, and well-connected," HMP spokesperson Katarina Flicker said at the time.

FEC filings don't tie any one donor's dollars to any one ad. But money is money, and the PAC had plenty to spend: it took in $73.8 million in September, and in the first two weeks of October alone it reported $72.4 million in independent expenditures, with $121.4 million still in the bank on Oct. 14, according to its pre-general report.

What Hoffman has admitted

Hoffman has never been accused of any crime in connection with Epstein. But the record of his ties is in his own words and in the federal government's own Epstein files.

Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting prostitution, including from a minor. More than six years later, on Christmas Eve 2014, Hoffman emailed him about two gifts sent to Epstein's New York home. "1- ice cream. if you have any interest, you should try -- else for the girls. 2- something that may strike your funny bone for the island," Hoffman wrote, in an email made public in the federal Epstein files as document EFTA01003545. The email does not say who "the girls" were.

In 2019, Hoffman told Axios that his "few interactions" with Epstein came at the request of MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito, for fundraising. "My last interaction with Epstein was in 2015," he said. "Still, 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."

That timeline didn't hold. After this year's federal Epstein file release, Elon Musk posted that he had known "so long ago" that Hoffman went to the island, because Epstein used it as a pitch to get Musk to come.

Asked directly on X whether he went to the island, Hoffman answered: "Yes, with Joi Ito, the Director of the MIT Media Lab, who had asked me to help MIT fundraise from Epstein." He added that "Trump's own FBI looked into me and found 'no hits.'"

Minutes later he corrected his 2019 story. "In 2019 I told Axios the last meeting I had with him was in 2015 but I was mistaken," he wrote, listing six more meetings and calls from April 2016 to March 2018, all coordinated by Ito.

Not just one PAC

House Majority PAC isn't Hoffman's biggest bet this year. FEC records show he has given $11.5 million in three checks to Lone Star Rising PAC, a Texas super PAC that has spent more than $24 million attacking Republican Ken Paxton and at least $9.4 million backing Democrat James Talarico in the Senate race. Together, those two super PACs have taken $20 million from Hoffman this cycle.

Think of it like a smoke-alarm company whose top investor keeps a grill running in the living room. You can sell the alarms. You just can't act shocked when someone points at the grill.

What's missing

House Majority PAC hasn't explained how it squares ads accusing Republicans of protecting Epstein's circle with taking its largest personal donation from a man who visited the island, kept meeting Epstein for years after his conviction, and gave a public timeline he later admitted was wrong. It also hasn't said whether it would return the money.

Republicans in both races are on the ballot Nov. 3. The voters watching those ads deserve to know who paid for the airtime.