A well-connected New York City fund-raising firm repeatedly asked the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to make contributions to the campaigns of some of New York’s best-known Democratic politicians, years after he was convicted of sex crimes in Florida.
The firm, Dynamic SRG, contacted Mr. Epstein on behalf of the campaigns of Kathy Hochul, Hakeem Jeffries and Joe Crowley, all of whom were members of Congress at the time, according to files related to Mr. Epstein released by the Justice Department in recent weeks. Ms. Hochul would go on to become governor of New York, and Mr. Jeffries is now the House minority leader.
Mr. Epstein does not appear to have given to any of the candidates, but emails sent to him by the consultants show that they offered access to exclusive gatherings with power brokers, and opportunities for him to serve in organizing roles in fund-raisers in exchange for contributions.
“I know I’ve emailed you before about Congresswoman Kathy Hochul,” begins one of three messages that Dynamic SRG partners sent to Mr. Epstein in 2012, when Ms. Hochul was running for re-election to the House. Included in the email was a sign-up link for a New York City fund-raiser for Ms. Hochul.
The firm’s fund-raising emails, which were sent from 2012 to 2014, do not include any responses from Mr. Epstein, and a New York Times review of campaign finance records found no evidence of donations from Mr. Epstein or associated fund-raising entities to any prominent New York candidates after the early 2000s.
But the repeated solicitation of contributions from Mr. Epstein by the prominent consulting firm, which continues to count among its clients an expansive roster of high-profile elected officials, underscores the extent to which he was still courted as a donor despite being convicted of felony sex crimes in 2008.
Walter Swett, a founder and partner at Dynamic SRG, said in a statement on Friday that its emails to Mr. Epstein were “designed to appear personal” but were sent in bulk and “were not tailored to individual recipients,” a standard practice in political fund-raising.
“We regret that a predator like Jeffrey Epstein received one,” Mr. Swett said, adding that the firm had not vetted him because he never responded to its solicitations. He said Mr. Epstein did not donate to any of Dynamic SRG’s clients or attend any of their events.
Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and felony solicitation of prostitution in June 2008.
Four years later, he received an email from Lisa Rossi of Dynamic SRG, who offered to put Mr. Epstein on a host committee for Ms. Hochul, who was then a member of Congress, and, for $1,000, said he would gain access to “an intimate V.I.P. reception” with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a Democrat who was the featured guest at the fund-raising event.
Campaign finance records show that Ms. Hochul’s campaigns paid the firm more than $100,000 for her two congressional races and subsequent runs for lieutenant governor and governor from 2014 to 2021.
Ms. Hochul became governor of New York in 2021 and is seeking re-election this year. Her campaign spokeswoman, Sarafina Chitika, said the governor had never met Mr. Epstein and did not know that Dynamic SRG had asked him for money. Ms. Chitika said the governor no longer employed the firm and “believes strongly that Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and their enablers must be held accountable.”
The files show that Dynamic SRG also emailed Mr. Epstein to promote Mr. Jeffries, the Brooklyn congressman who is now the House minority leader and in line to become speaker if his party prevails in the midterm election this year.
An early 2013 email from three firm partners called Mr. Jeffries “a rising star” and invited Mr. Epstein to “get to know Hakeem better” by participating in a fund-raising dinner featuring President Barack Obama. Another email that November invited Mr. Epstein to attend a fund-raiser for Mr. Jeffries that was headlined by Scott Stringer, who had just been elected New York City comptroller.
Mr. Jeffries paid the firm more than $37,000 from 2013 to 2015, federal campaign records show.
Mr. Jeffries’ campaign referred The Times to an interview Mr. Jeffries gave to CNN in which he disavowed any knowledge of the 2013 email and said of Mr. Epstein: “I’ve never had a conversation with him, never met him, know nothing about him other than the extreme things he’s been convicted of doing.”
Another of the Dynamic SRG emails in the Epstein files appears to show Joe Crowley, then a congressman from Queens, personally asking Mr. Epstein to become a member of his host committee and to donate up to $10,000 for a fund-raiser celebrating Mr. Crowley’s 50th birthday.
“Dear Jeffrey,” the 2012 solicitation began. “Thank you for everything you do to promote and advance New York.” Mr. Crowley said in one message that he needed “people like you to support me if we are going to succeed in this effort.”
Another email forwarded to Mr. Epstein by Richard Kahn, Mr. Epstein’s longtime accountant, said the request was “from the Congressman who i believe called earlier.”
An email from the next year shows Mr. Crowley inviting Mr. Epstein to another birthday gala and a small breakfast for donors who contributed at least $2,600. In 2014, a third invitation was sent by a Dynamic SRG partner for another event, this one featuring an appearance by Andrew M. Cuomo, New York’s governor at the time, at the same location.
The Times found no record of any donation by Mr. Epstein to Mr. Crowley, and the former congressman said in a text message that he was “shocked” to see his name in communications to Mr. Epstein.
“Who in their right mind would ask a pedophile for money,” he said, adding that he had called for all of the Epstein files to be released. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think my name would somehow be involved in it,” he said.
Mr. Crowley said Dynamic SRG had handled all of his fund-raising correspondence and that he had no recollection of calling Mr. Epstein’s office or accountant.
“It’s unfortunate their list wasn’t vetted to exclude this monster,” he said of the consulting firm. “I never met or spoke to him, and he never contributed to me. I hope the survivors get the justice they deserve.”
Mr. Crowley, who left Congress in 2019 after losing the Democratic primary to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was one of Dynamic SRG’s top clients. The firm was paid more than $700,000 by his congressional campaigns over nine years and more than $200,000 from his other fund-raising entities, campaign finance records show.
The roster of current and former clients on Dynamic SRG’s website lists many of the biggest names in New York Democratic politics, including Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the state senate’s majority leader; former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Ms. Hochul’s running mate this year; and Mark Levine, the city comptroller. The number of clients advertised on the website has grown from 13 campaigns in 2012 to 45 in 2026 and also includes multiple Democratic Party affiliates and nonprofit organizations.
Aside from soliciting money for New York candidates, the firm also contacted Mr. Epstein on behalf of Senator Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico, when he sought the office in 2012, noting that Senator Chuck Schumer of New York would be speaking at that fund-raising event. A separate 2012 email asked Mr. Epstein if he could have “lunch tomorrow” with Mr. Heinrich, who was visiting New York City.
Mr. Heinrich won the race. The Times found no record of his having received any donation from Mr. Epstein.
Mr. Heinrich’s government and campaign offices in New Mexico did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Epstein was once a prominent donor to Democratic politicians, but his contributions were treated as a political liability after his arrest on prostitution charges in Palm Beach County, Fla., in 2006. Eliot Spitzer, then in the midst of what would be a successful campaign for governor of New York, returned a $50,000 donation Mr. Epstein made to his campaign.
Mr. Schumer, now the Democratic leader in the Senate, said in 2019 that he was making donations to charities that support victims of sex trafficking and women who are victims of violence to offset roughly $7,000 in donations he received from Mr. Epstein in the 1990s.
Mr. Epstein appears to have largely stopped contributing to political campaigns after pleading guilty in Florida in 2008.
In 2019, he was charged in Federal District Court with child sex trafficking and died in a Manhattan jail while being held on those charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Jay Root is an investigative reporter for The Times based in Albany, N.Y., covering the people and events influencing — and influenced by — state and local government.
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