Date: 01-29-2018
The Republican Party of Kentucky and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell received thousands of dollars from Las Vegas casino tycoon Steve Wynn, who recently stepped down as the national GOP finance chairman over multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
In 2016, Wynn donated $10,000 to the Republican Party of Kentucky through a joint fundraising committee, according to Federal Election data. He also gave $1,000 to McConnell’s 1996 Senate campaign.
Tres Watson, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said the party doesn’t plan to keep the money in the wake of the allegations.
“We will be donating the money to a charity,” Watson said. He did not give specifics as to when and where the money would be donated.
A spokesman for McConnell’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Wynn, 76, is accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with company employees over the decades, according to The Wall Street Journal. He has publicly denied the allegations but resigned his post as the party’s finance chair in the following days.
“Today I accepted Steve Wynn’s resignation as Republican National Committee Finance Chair,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said Saturday in a statement to USA TODAY.
Wynn is the latest public figure accused of sexual misconduct in a movement that began with Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein last fall.
At the time, the Republican Party pressured Democrats to return the Weinstein’s donations over the years.
Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat, donated {to charity} Weinstein’s $5,200 that he gave to her run for U.S. Senate in 2014, according to Murray State University Public Radio.
Bradford Queen, a spokesman for Grimes, said he was unsure if the money had been donated yet.
In addition to the tens of thousands of dollars he’s given to GOP candidates and causes, Wynn helped run President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, which raised a record $107 million, according to USA TODAY.
By Thomas Novelly
Louisville Courier Journal
