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…
