President-elect Donald J. Trump’s legal team found evidence that a top adviser asked for retainer fees from potential appointees in order to promote them for jobs in the new administration, five people briefed on the matter said on Monday.
Mr. Trump directed his team to carry out the review of the adviser, Boris Epshteyn, who coordinated the legal defenses in Mr. Trump’s criminal cases and is a powerful figure in the transition. Several people whom Mr. Trump trusts had alerted him that Mr. Epshteyn was seeking money from people looking for appointments, three of the people briefed on the matter said.
David Warrington, who was effectively the Trump campaign’s general counsel, conducted the review in recent days, the results of which were described to The New York Times. The review claimed that Mr. Epshteyn had sought payment from two people, including Scott Bessent, whom Mr. Trump recently picked as his nominee for Treasury secretary.
According to the review, Mr. Epshteyn met with Mr. Bessent in February, at a time when it was widely known that he was interested in the Treasury post, and proposed $30,000 to $40,000 a month to “promote” Mr. Bessent around Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s estate in Florida.
Mr. Bessent declined. He also did not partake in another effort by Mr. Epshteyn, described in the report, to get him to invest in a three-on-three basketball league, but played along with him to avoid offending such a seemingly powerful figure in Mr. Trump’s world.
Mr. Bessent then called Mr. Epshteyn on Nov. 14 to see whether he was criticizing Mr. Bessent to people around Mr. Trump, the review said. Mr. Epshteyn told Mr. Bessent that it was “too late” to hire him and that he was “Boris Epshteyn,” with an expletive between the two names. He then suggested the hiring was for consulting.
The second person cited in the review was a defense contractor from whom Mr. Epshteyn sought $100,000 a month during the transition period. The report said Mr. Epshteyn depicted his own hiring as “do or die” for the person’s prospects, according to the review. The contractor did not hire Mr. Epshteyn and is fearful of retaliation, the review found.
The document ended by saying that Mr. Epshteyn’s proximity to Mr. Trump should be “terminated.”
In a statement issued Monday evening through the transition, Mr. Epshteyn said: “I am honored to work for President Trump and with his team. These fake claims are false and defamatory and will not distract us from Making America Great Again.”
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the transition, said: “As is standard practice, a broad review of the campaign’s consulting agreements has been conducted and completed, including as to Boris, among others. We are now moving ahead together as a team to help President Trump Make America Great Again.”
It was unclear what “standard practice” he was referring to.
A lawyer for Mr. Bessent said both he and his client declined to comment.
Details about the review and about the behavior Mr. Epshteyn is suspected of were reported earlier by the website Just the News. That site is run by John Solomon, a conservative writer who is close to Mr. Trump and was asked in 2022 to serve as his representative to the National Archives when the Justice Department was investigating Mr. Trump’s retention of classified documents after his first term as president.
Mr. Solomon’s reporting closely tracked with the internal Trump team review as described to the Times.
In an interview with Mr. Solomon, Mr. Trump said: “I suppose every president has people around them who try to make money off them on the outside. It’s a shame, but it happens. But no one working for me in any capacity should be looking to make money.”
It remains to be seen whether there will be any impact from the internal investigation. Mr. Trump has over time credited Mr. Epshteyn for sticking by him even after the calamitous end of his last presidency. Mr. Epshteyn is currently under indictment in Arizona in connection with trying to overturn the 2020 election results.
But Mr. Trump’s son Eric Trump issued a pointed warning on Fox News on Monday evening.
While asserting that he had never known Mr. Epshteyn, with whom he went to college, to be anything but “a good human being,” he said: “My father’s been incredibly clear: You do not, you do not do that under any circumstance. And believe me, there will be repercussions if somebody was.”
He added that he hoped the reports were “false” but that if they were true, “the person will probably no longer be around.”
Over the years, several Trump advisers have had consulting contracts with outside clients. Mr. Trump has at times been suspicious of such arrangements, asking whether candidates being recommended for endorsements are paying his advisers or whether companies being brought to him are financially intermingled with his aides.
Mr. Epshteyn, who has minimal political experience outside of working for Mr. Trump, has been paid for consulting work by Republican candidates running in local or statewide races since Mr. Trump left office.
One of those candidates, Carl Paladino, who ran for Congress in New York, complained to The Times that he was not sure exactly why he had paid Mr. Epshteyn $20,000 a month. He was not endorsed by Mr. Trump in his 2022 race.
“He was highly recommended as having good relations with some people that work for Trump,” Mr. Paladino said in 2023. “I was told that it would be in my interest if I sent money to this Boris. I did, and we heard nothing from the man. He was totally useless.” Some former aides to Mr. Paladino insisted that Mr. Epshteyn had provided advice to the campaign.
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