Trump-backing billionaires are trying to buy a prosecutor in Palm Beach
Trump-backing billionaires are trying to buy a prosecutor in Palm Beach
A trio of billionaires just put half a million dollars into the Florida election that will decide the next top prosecutor in Trump’s home county.
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A trio of Donald Trump-backing billionaires just put half a million dollars into the Florida election that will decide the next top prosecutor in Trump’s home county.
The sudden cash infusion appears to be financing television ads promoting Republican Sam Stern, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer who is running for state attorney in Palm Beach County. His chief opponent is Democrat Alexcia Cox, a deputy chief assistant to current State Attorney Dave Aronberg, a Democrat who is not seeking re-election.
Palm Beach County is home to many of Florida’s richest and most powerful residents — including Trump, the former U.S. president who lost his re-election bid in 2020 and is now running a third time. That makes the top prosecutor in the county one of the most uniquely important positions in all of Florida government.
A previous Palm Beach state attorney was partly responsible for allowing Jeffrey Epstein to escape serious criminal charges for many years while Epstein molested hundreds of underage girls at his Palm Bach mansion.
The race to become the next state attorney appears to be a close one, with even the region’s major newspaper editorial boards dived over which candidate to support.
But three billionaires just gave Stern a $500,000 boost.
They include Thomas Peterffy, a billionaire stock trader and Florida land baron who records show wrote a $250,000 check in late September to “Stern PC,” a political committee that Stern controls.
Peterffy’s six-figure gift came shortly after billionaire hedge funder manager John Paulson gave $125,000 to Stern’s political committee. And it came just before billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn kicked in another $125,000.
Cox, for her part, also has a political committee that allows her to raise unlimited amounts of money from donors. But “Friends of Alexcia Cox” has raised just under $120,000 — less than each of Stern’s billionaires have given all by themselves.
Peterffy, Paulson and Wynn all own palatial estates along Palm Beach’s famed “Billionaire’s Row,” a stretch of ultra-exclusive waterfront property that also includes Trump’s home at the Mar-a-Lago golf club.
But they are not only neighbors of the former president. They have also become closely aligned with Trump, who has promised criminal prosecutions of political opponents if he reclaims the White House.
Paulson, for instance, is a leading defender of Trump’s plan to impose higher taxes on imports — and Trump himself has said he may make the hedge fund manager his Treasury Secretary if Trump defeats Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in November.
Peterffy and Wynn, meanwhile, attended a high-priced fundraising dinner with Trump last month in Aspen, Col., a home owned by investor and art collector John Phelan.
Phelan gave $50,000 to Stern’s political committee last month, which records show raised just under $1 million since the start of September.
At the start of October, Stern’s committee transferred $840,000 to the Republican Party of Florida. And Federal Communications Commission records show that the Republican Party, which can buy TV airtime at cheaper rates than individual political committees, is now paying for ads supporting Stern’s campaign.
Trump once pardoned one of Stern’s clients — a Palm Beach County eye doctor who had been convicted of Medicare fraud.
And the former president has become something of an issue in Stern’s campaign for state attorney.
Aronberg, the outgoing state attorney, has angered some Trump allies in part by refusing to support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ demand for a separate state investigation into the alleged assassination attempt against Trump last month at part of his Palm Beach property — something that the FBI, Secret Service, and other federal agencies are already investigating and prosecuting.
The state’s attempt to conduct a parallel probe, which some legal experts say could undermine the entire operation, has already led to clashes between Florida politicians and federal law enforcement officials.
Trump supporters became further enflamed when the State Attorney’s Office agreed to a plea deal with a local man who had been arrested for making threatening social media posts about Trump and running mate J.D. Vance. The deal will allow the man to avoid a formal conviction if he completes an 18-month pre-trial diversion program and continues mental-health counseling.
Stern has publicly attacked the deal, calling it “outrageous.”
It is further reason and an act of necessity that everyone get to the polls and vote against Trump. He's only in it for himself and his billionaire friends. He does not care one bit about the men and women who are less than a billionaire. You are delusional if you think otherwise.
The billionaires have wrecked such a beautiful state.