Let's Talk About James Talarico's Jeffrey Epstein Connection

For years, Democrats have tried to bury the Jeffrey Epstein story because so many in their own party had links to the scumbag, including former President Bill Clinton. When burying it failed, the Democrat Party tried to turn Epstein into a Trump scandal. The recent releases from the Epstein files wrecked that plan. They showed that Epstein and Donald Trump didn't like each other, and that the only high-profile people with real connections to Epstein were Democrats. That hasn't stopped the left from weaponizing the Trump-Epstein conspiracy theory, even as more Democrats get caught in the Epstein net.

The latest is Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D-50th District).

Even though Talarico claims he’s running against the "Epstein Class,” Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder and a former Epstein associate, has poured at least $11.5 million into a super PAC backing Talarico. FEC filings show most of that money arrived in June as a single $10 million check to Lone Star Rising PAC, months after Talarico beat Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) in a bitter primary. The PAC spent nearly $4.5 million against Crockett before the March vote, and it is now ramping up its spending against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Talarico has attacked Paxton over what he calls an Epstein-style sweetheart deal for Adam Dean Hoffman, a Waco lawyer whom prosecutors first charged with felony sexual abuse of a young child. After a mistrial, and with the alleged victim declining to testify again, Adam Dean Hoffman pleaded guilty to misdemeanor indecent assault and displaying harmful material to a minor.

"The Epstein Class has no place in Texas," Talarico has said, suggesting that the rich and powerful escaped justice through their Epstein ties. He has also demanded that Paxton's office release the "Hoffman Files," a deliberate echo of the push for the Epstein files that the Justice Department released last year.

So let's examine the other Hoffman, the one bankrolling Talarico. Reid Hoffman appears many times in the Epstein files, both interacting with Epstein and discussing trips to his private island, his Manhattan penthouse, and his New Mexico ranch. In a September 2014 email, Hoffman praised Epstein's taste in people as Epstein connected him with Hardeep Singh Puri, then India's ambassador to the United Nations and now its oil minister.

Then there's Christmas Eve 2014. Hoffman told Epstein he had mailed gifts, including a surfer statue for Little St. James and ice cream for Epstein or for "the girls." A Hoffman representative later claimed the phrase referred to adult members of Epstein's staff who called themselves that.

Hoffman claimed in a February statement that he only engaged with Epstein to fundraise for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, even though several of those meetings occurred after Epstein was forced to register as a sex offender in 2008 after pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for sex in Palm Beach, Fla.
“The victims of Epstein’s abhorrent and vile actions deserve all the information they are seeking, and I continue to call on President Trump to deliver that for them,” Hoffman said on X at the time.
A rep for Hoffman later explained that the December 2014 email referencing “the girls,” was discussing “adult members of Epstein’s internal team who referred to themselves as ‘the girls.’” There has been no explanation as to what made the 2015 dinner “wild” from the other attendees, if such a gathering even took place.
Other contemporaneous emails indicate that Hoffman was made aware of Epstein’s time behind bars in Florida.

A July 2013 exchange between Epstein and Joi Ito, then the director of the MIT Media Lab, indicates that Hoffman knew about Epstein's jail time and did not judge him for it.

“Our campaign has no control over contributions to any super PAC — federal law prohibits coordination between political campaigns and outside entities,” Talarico spokesman JT Ennis told The New York Post.

That may be true, but Talarico still has options.

He could publicly call on Lone Star Rising PAC to return Hoffman's money, demand that the PAC stop spending it to advance his candidacy, and make clear that he doesn't want to benefit from contributions linked to an Epstein associate. He could even donate an equivalent amount of his own money to organizations supporting Epstein's victims.

None of those steps would erase the PAC's spending, and Talarico couldn't legally dictate what an independent super PAC does. But they would demonstrate whether his opposition to the "Epstein Class" extends to the billionaire helping finance his own Senate campaign.

If Talarico believes the wealthy and powerful should be held accountable for their associations with Epstein, he should be willing to apply that principle consistently. His campaign's legal inability to control a super PAC doesn't prevent him from speaking out against its funding or asking it to return the money.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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