Mike Rogers, the 2026 Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat to represent Michigan, has received nearly $4.7 million from donors who appeared in the Epstein files.
Rogers has directly received campaign donations from people who appeared in the Epstein files.
Contrary to the claim’s implication, Rogers received much of these funds during his 2024 Senate campaign, not his 2026 campaign. Furthermore, these donors sent most of the funds to independent PACs supporting Rogers, not directly to Rogers’ campaign.
Being named in the Epstein files is not necessarily evidence of wrongdoing. It’s unclear whether any of these donors knew of or were complicit in Epstein’s crimes, and there’s no evidence they were.
In September 2026, a claim spread online that Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat to represent Michigan, had received nearly $4.7 million from donors who appeared in files related to the federal investigation of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The rumor spread on X, Threads and Facebook (screenshot). Some posts also claimed at least seven of Rogers’ donors had ties to Epstein. Rogers’ Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, also shared the rumor.
This claim is mostly true at face value, but it needs significant context.
It originated with a report in the Detroit Metro Times, a progressive news outlet, titled, accurately, “Donors named in Epstein files gave nearly $4.7 million to Mike Rogers and groups backing him.”
The story explains that Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder and CEO of investment management company Blackstone, donated $4.5 million in 2024 to a super PAC that supported Rogers. By law, super PACs, which are allowed to raise unlimited money, can’t coordinate their spending with the actual campaign. Schwarzman also donated a much-smaller amount directly to Rogers’ Senate campaigns from 2023 to 2025.
Snopes independently verified the amount Schwarzman donated and that he appears in the Epstein files. However, as the Metro Times story states, there’s no evidence Schwarzman and Epstein directly interacted. No one, including federal prosecutors, has publicly accused Schwarzman of wrongdoing connected to Epstein.
The other six donors who donated the remaining money had varying degrees of closeness to Epstein — but there’s no evidence any of them knew of or assisted in his criminal activities.
As for El-Sayed, we found no evidence any people named in the Epstein files donated directly to his campaign. Two people with passing mentions in the Epstein files sent money to a super PAC supporting El-Sayed.
Rogers’ campaign spokeswoman, Alyssa Brouillet, pointed to Rogers’ time in the FBI “busting human traffickers” and said in an emailed statement that “any attempt at associating him with criminals is insulting and patently false.”
Federal Election Commission data indicates Schwarzman sent “GLCF, INC” three donations totaling $4.5 million: $2 million in June 2024, $1 million in August 2024 and $1.5 million in September 2024.
GLCF stands for Great Lakes Conservatives Fund — a super PAC that solely supports Rogers, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit group that tracks campaign finances.
A Federal Election Commission search for donations from Stephen Schwarzman sent to Rogers’ campaign committees shows the billionaire businessman also sent at least $13,600 to “Rogers for Senate,” the committee name for Rogers’ actual campaign, and $7,000 in 2025 to “Team Rogers,” a joint-fundraising operation for Rogers. Schwarzman also sent $5,000 to “MR PAC,” which stands for Michigan’s Resurgence PAC — which Rogers used to raise money to support other politicians.
(Federal Election Commission)
Schwarzman in the Epstein files
Schwarzman’s last name appears frequently in the Epstein files. For example, one document shows Epstein was emailed an invitation to a 2015 cocktail party to celebrate the release of the film “The Imitation Game” on behalf of Schwarzman and others. In another email, Epstein appears to call Schwarzman “terrific” after suggesting to someone that “attaching to Blackstone might be a good idea.”
However, none of these emails indicates Schwarzman and Epstein ever met in person. There also aren’t any publicly available pictures of Schwarzman with Epstein, although there is an authentic picture of the Blackstone CEO in conversation with Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell at a New York gala.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Schwarzman told Snopes it would be “categorically false and grossly irresponsible to claim or imply that Steve had any relationship with this despicable individual.”
The spokesperson said Epstein did not attend the 2015 cocktail party, and the invitation was extended through a PR firm that worked with the film’s distributors, not Schwarzman.
The same PR firm, the spokesperson said, invited Epstein to another
Other donors’ connections to Epstein files
Here’s a list of other people in the Epstein files who donated to Rogers from 2023 to 2025, per Metro Times reporting and Snopes’ independent verification using FEC data:
- Marc Rowan, Apollo Global Management CEO: $25,000 to GLCF, $14,000 to Rogers’ campaigns and $7,000 to Team Rogers
- Ronald Lauder, Estée Lauder heir: $3,300 to Rogers’ 2024 Senate campaign
- John Catsimatidis, grocery chain billionaire businessman: $13,600 to Rogers for Senate
- Joseph Baratta, Blackstone executive: $10,300 to Rogers for Senate
- Howard Lorber, real estate executive: $5,693 to Rogers for Senate
- John W. Childs, private equity investor: $8,530 to Rogers for Senate, $60,000 to GLCF and $12,000 to Team Rogers
Of the list above, Rowan and Lauder have the most documented interaction with Epstein.
Rowan planned a breakfast at Epstein’s house and kept regular correspondence with him from 2013 to 2016. The files show Lauder and Epstein planned meetups in 2017, including luncheons and a museum tour. Lauder’s signature also appears in the files on joint purchase agreements for artwork, which Epstein appeared to help with.
In an email, Apollo Global Management spokesperson Giovanna Falbo directed us to a Feb. 18, 2026, news release where the company referred to its investigation into Apollo’s ties to Epstein and denied that Rowan had “either a business or personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.”
Business Insider reported that Catsimatidis was in one of Epstein’s 1997 address books. Catsimatidis told Business Insider he met Epstein once in the 1990s through a friend and never saw him again, although Epstein called the billionaire “once or twice, I don’t know about what.”
Epstein said in a 2016 email that
Most mentions of a “Joseph Baratta” in the DOJ’s Epstein files appear to actually reference an attorney — Joseph P. Baratta — not the Blackstone executive, Joseph A. Baratta. There are a couple of mentions of the executive, but nothing that suggests an actual relationship.
“Joe has absolutely no relationship with him, and it would be outrageous and patently false to suggest otherwise,” said a spokesperson for Baratta, who also represents Schwarzman.
Lorber is referenced in relation to some real estate deals Epstein contemplated, as well as a suggested “war council” to help Trump respond to the aftermath of the Russia collusion investigation. There’s no evidence such a “war council” ever materialized.
Similarly, the DOJ files include financial transactions connected to Childs, but there’s no documented correspondence between Childs and Epstein.
In February 2019, Childs was charged with soliciting prostitution in a human trafficking sting. He denied the allegations. The charges were reportedly dropped in 2020 and his record expunged after the courts determined prosecutors brought the case in violation of his Fourth Amendment privacy rights.
We attempted to reach Lauder and Lorber to clarify the extent of their relationships to Epstein and await responses. We were unable to reach Childs.
The bottom line
Rogers and PACs supporting him did, in fact, receive millions from donors who appear in the Epstein files, largely from Blackstone co-founder Stephen Schwarzman. However, simply being named in the files doesn’t mean a person knew of or assisted in Epstein’s criminal activities. For example, the Epstein files release contained dubious allegations, newsletters Epstein subscribed to and what appear to be mundane business transactions, like for facility maintenance.
For further reading, Snopes has covered several claims about El-Sayed, Rogers’ Democratic opponent.
