What’s she hiding?
Thus far, New York State Senator and Presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand has chosen to go with a fairly innocuous, “I never heard of that group” response whenever she’s been asked about the NXIVM sex cult.
It was Frank Report that first broke the story about ties between NXIVM and Gillibrand.
Our original reporting was motivated by Gillibrand’s claim that then-President Bill Clinton should have resigned over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
At that time, we simply summarized what we knew about the involvement of her father, Doug Rutnik, with NXIVM – and asked that she hold hearings “about whether law enforcement on the federal level should conduct a serious investigation (into NXIVM)”.
No such hearings were ever held.
*****
We followed up with a second story that provided more details of Doug Rutnik’s work for the NXIVM cult – and a copy of the “Settlement Agreement” he entered into with them back on June 29, 2006.
In addition to being sued by NXIVM itself, Rutnik had also been sued by several of the High-Rank members of the cult. Those included Alex Betancourt, Edgar Boone, Barbara Bouchey, Clare and Sara Bronfman, the late Pamela Cafritz, and Nancy Salzman.
In that same story, we also reported that NXIVM had stiffed the law firm that represented it in its lawsuit against Rutnik – and ended up having a $974,000 judgment against it awarded to the Proskauer Rose law firm.
The allegations in the suit were that Rutnik had not delivered on promised consulting services for which he was paid $25,000 per month and that he had sexually harassed Nxivm president Nancy Salzman. Rutnik settled the lawsuit by paying Nxivm $100,000, the sum total of his four month’s of consulting fees.
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Our probing about Gillibrand’s ties to NXIVM eventually prompted legendary journalist Richard Johnson to write a piece about her ties to NXIVM in his Page Six column in the New York Post.
It was in Johnson’s column that Gillibrand first adopted her strategy about how to deal with this matter. As quoted therein, a spokesman for her said, “Sen. Gillibrand had never heard of this group until she recently read about them in the newspaper.”
And, thus, Sen. Gillibrand became locked into a narrative that is both ludicrous and insulting to her constituency.
*****
We next revealed that Gillibrand’s stepmother, Gwen Bellcourt, also had been involved with the NXIVM cult. In fact, it was her deep involvement with the cult and Doug Rutnik’s determined efforts to extract her from its clutches that eventually turned into a love affair that resulted in their marriage shortly after she left the cult.
But still, Sen. Gillibrand maintained that she had never heard about NXIVM before she read about it in the newspapers back in the Fall of 2017.
*****
When Gillibrand was running for reelection in 2018, her opponent, Chele Farley, raised questions about the Senator’s lack of knowledge about NXIVM.
“Kirsten Gillibrand is a complete and utter hypocrite. She has been extended the benefit of the doubt and due process in sloughing off questions about her ties to a notorious sex cult [NXIVM], yet has presumed Judge Kavanaugh guilty without providing the same,” said Farley.
Farley continued, “Throughout this campaign, I have called on Kirsten Gillibrand to explain how she failed so badly to protect women in her own backyard, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary – Kirsten Gillibrand has simply claimed ignorance. Judge Kavanaugh has denied actions that occurred 35 years ago with even less evidence and deserves due process.”
*****
The Frank Report’s next big scoop on Gillibrand’s connection to NXIVM came when we broke the story about her sitting at one of the three VIP tables that the cult had purchased for a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in Saratoga Springs, NY back in 2006.
Seated next to Sen. Gillibrand was none other than Nancy Salzman, the President of NXIVM – and the first one to plead guilty in the current U.S. v. Raniere case.
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We also note that a simple search on Little Sis shows that the Bronfman family is one of the larger donors to Gillibrand. Clare Bronfman donated to Gillibrand. As well as her brothers, , and her father,
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“Believe the woman,” says Kirsten Gillibrand, a woman you can believe.When Gillibrand first announced that she was considering a run for the U.S. presidency, she brought along her husband, Jonathan – and her two sons, Theodore and Henry for the announcement. Also accompanying her was her mother, Polly Noonan, Doug Rutnik’s first wife.
But daddy Doug and step-mom Gwen were nowhere to be seen at the event.
Nor, as far as we’ve been able to ascertain, has Gillibrand ever mentioned either of them during her many campaign speeches.
*****
Most recently, Big League Politics ran a story detailing the ties between Doug Rutnik and the NXIVM cult.
As Frank Parlato, publisher of Artvoice and Frank Report was quoted in that story, “Her father Doug Rutnik came to work as a consultant for NXIVM…he was fired, they sued him, and he had to pay them $100,000”.
*****
And so, here we are in April 2019 – and Sen. Gillibrand is still sticking by her story that the first time she ever heard of NXIVM was when she read about them in the newspapers in the Fall of 2017.
Even though her father, Doug Rutnik, worked for the cult, was sued by them, and had to pay them back $100,000.
Even though her stepmother, Gwen Bellcourt, had become personally enmeshed in the cult – and had to be rescued from it by Doug.
Even though the major newspaper in the area where she lives, the Times Union, ran an award-winning series about the cult back in February 2012.
*****
Which just leaves these questions for Sen. Gillibrand:
What are you hiding about your involvement the NXIVM cult – and why are hiding it?
The hile Hitler, Nazi salute pose would be fitting if Gillibrand hadn’t let her U.S. Senate district become an immigrant anchor baby, sex & labor trafficking, money laundering, assasin training portal for Mexican PRI party elitists and Canadian TV stars alike. (Jk, kinda.)
Very circumspect that no NDNY or NYS investigation was commenced or announced, from at least the time Gillibrand admits she read about NXIVM in the newspaper back in 2017.
If the inaction is due to the fact of the EDNY investigation as explained, we should expect that to be rigorously corrected now that the ball is in Gillibrand’s court. Hopefully she’ll be a tenth as tough on KAR Et Al as she was on poor Al Franken.
Maybe Gillibrand has been “branded”?
She has been branded, my Trump name for her is Sillybrand.
Keith doesn’t know Gillibrand.
Do you mean “biblically?”
Que Pasa, Yolanda?
Why did you choose the pseudonym “Yolanda Cortez”?
An obviously Hispanic name.
Is it because NXIVM is now owned by the Salinas Family and you now work for them?
Shadow State
Advice…….
Post the Gillbrand having dinner with Nancy Salzman more often so that it gets out into the public domain. If you want to help nip her campaign in the bud. Once her campaign gains traction the photo will only do limited damage.
Why post flattering pictures of her that makes no sense?
While I agree that the Sillybrand/Salzman dinner photo should be used as much as possible, she’s not going anywhere. She has far too much baggage to make it to the Dem nomination, and Trump would wipe the floor with her if she did.
always crush your enemies the first opportunity you have.
Do we know if Kirsten Gillibrand has associated with, or spoken to, her father and stepmother since they got away from NXIVM? A member of the cult wouldn’t associate with defectors. It makes me wonder if the Senator’s connection goes a little deeper…
Nice picture at the top, looks like Raniere got it wrong, Sillybrand has the “Heil Hitler!” salute down pat.
Interesting that Barb B. was in on the Rutnik lawsuit, and Karen U. was not.
Also, did Rutnik get paid $100,000 worth of billable hours, or did he have a $100,000 retainer that was returned in full?
Spending almost $1 million to get $100k returned means the primary motivation must have been to shut Rutnik up what he found out about NXIVM, not to get the money back.
Does Mrs. Gillibrand know what kind of arm movement she’s doing?
Doesn’t Mrs. Gillibrand think?
Mrs. Gillibrand is unsuspecting, has never read a book or newspaper or watched TV in her life. Anyone who claims otherwise is lying.
If she’s so ignorant of things involving her own family and the area she has represented for years, why should she be elected President?
It seems to me that this may be making a mountain out of a molehill – it’s plausible that a busy politician might not have known about all of her busy attorney-lobbyist father’s clients. But I’d agree that a clear statement from her is due, though I’m sure she’d rather not wade into the mess, and it’s possibly even a point of embarrassment about what her father and stepmother got themselves involved in.
I’m more interested in knowing what was going on with all the Albany-area officials and agencies who were most certainly told about, and even given evidence of, NXIVM’s and Raniere’s misdeeds, and being directly in positions to do something about it yet did nothing, or worse yet did only that which played into NXIVM’s hands in harassing former members and whistleblowers.
Has anyone looked up and listed all of NXIVM’s and its principals’ political contributions to see if, for instance, they didn’t play the typical game of plying both sides of the political establishment? Raniere’s Ayn Rand influenced philosophy leans more towards the sort of political positions represented by the right these days.
Sillybrand already made a clear statement. Now it’s up to others to bring forth evidence to the contrary. Most of their money went to Dems.
As far as I’m aware, she just said she didn’t know anything, which really doesn’t clarify the details. It’s entirely possible that she didn’t know what her father and stepmother were doing related to the group, did but didn’t know the name NXIVM, or has just forgotten details in the midst of a very busy public life as a politician. I’d like to see her clarify if she knew anything about her parents’ involvement and the lawsuit her father was involved in, and what if anything she knew of the people and group who are reported to have had the table at the fundraiser.
I don’t care one way or the other about Gillibrand, I just hate to see energy wasted on anything dubious, when there are more important things like exposing those in authority in Albany who NXIVM influenced or corrupted. If there is evidence about her, let’s see it – as far as I can tell there’s no photo, just Tighe’s report of the event.
And has anyone ever actually gone through the donation records to confirm such generalizations? The Mexican NXians were mostly from right-leaning political families, though I don’t know the politics of those actually involved, except that Emiliano Salinas seems to have been trying to follow in his father’s footsteps in the PRI.
I did a quick check on Open Secrets, and it turns out that Clare was doing some classic playing of both sides in these two chronological entries:
Money to Candidates BRONFMAN, CLARE
CLIFTON PARK, NY 12065 SELF 09-28-2007 $2,300.00 Clinton, Hillary (D)
.
Money to Parties BRONFMAN, CLARE
CLIFTON PARK, NY 12065 05-31-2007 $2,500.00 National Republican Senatorial Cmte (R)
If she said she doesn’t know anything, do you really expect her to clarify the details? https://littlesis.org/person/38280-Clare_Bronfman
I’d hope that she’d further clarify, particularly given the additional publicity around the situation. There’s precedent for that, but often these things are allowed to drop, too.
And maybe she really doesn’t know anything, just as she states. Not everyone is very involved in their parents’ business, or can recall details of every event they went to a decade ago. When I went through my parents’ affairs, I was surprised at some aspects of their lives that I don’t think I knew about, and I
That useful link shows that Bronfman gave about 2/3 of her donations to Republicans, and the site’s info on her sister Sara shows another $10,000 in giving to the New York State Senate Republican Committee (neither’s donations to that are on the graph, for some reason), which seems to have been the focus of the their giving – perhaps the real important line of questioning and investigation to pursue. Even if Gillibrand were neck-deep in ESP and NXIVM, it still wouldn’t go towards explaining or uncovering how key state and local officials let Raniere and the Bronfmans get away with what they did.
She’s a trained lawyer who represented the tobacco companies during the smoking/cancer timeframe. She is a politician. What would cause you to think she’s going to expand on her answer before counter-evidence is presented? While she gave more money to the Republican party to use as they wished, all of her contributions to individuals were Dems.
I agree that she won’t expand her answer unless pressed – but it seems to me that perhaps the pressure is on, and may only increase.
And I don’t think the importance of the fact that the Bronfmans gave more total money to Republicans, can be dismissed. It’s much more likely part of NXIVM influence-buying in Albany, something key and yet to be revealed, than anything to do with Gillibrand, who partisans have it out for because of her role in D.C. politics.
Take a look at the “Lil Sis” data FR linked.
All the Bronfmans — not just Clare and Sara but their half-brothers, as well, who btw do not live anywhere near Albany, NY or any part of Gillibrand’s (formerly Hillary Clinton’s) NY district — donated relatively generously — much as allowable — to Kirsten Gillibrand’s campaign fund from 2009ish onward.
The Bronfmans were Gillibrand donors when the Albany TU pedophile, child exploitation etc. expose was published and downplayed
— not picked up by any other media much less any law enforcement (except to charge sources and reporters with computer trespassing) — but rather quashed, from Feb. 2012.
(The Bronfmans also made some key Republican donations before anyone goes bi-partisan over this fact.)
I think you’re confusing Gillibrand’s U.S. Senate seat with her former seat in the House of Representatives. All U.S. Senate seats are statewide seats.
Yes, I am, thanks Claviger.
It’s common for rich people to hedge their bets and chum both sides of the fence. However, there is a clear pattern of mostly Dem contributions, by the numbers of Dems being given money. Of course, this is easy in New York state, as most of them are Dems.
From what I’m seeing, there are more donations to Democrats in terms of quantity, but the total amount of money actually skews towards Republicans because of large donations that Clare and Sara both made to the NYS Senate Republican Campaign Committee – with no corresponding “hedging” donations to New York state legislature Democratic PACs or individual candidates. They were obviously targeting something or someone on the Republican side; the question is, what or who?
The Bronfman/NXIVM money trail actually seems to lead to NY statehouse Republicans (below), and I find it interesting to see that people have apparently been too blinded by partisanship (or other agendas) to notice that. The giving of all the NXiams is also pretty much limited to 2006-08 election cycles, when they seem to have tried to put a push on, that they then abandoned.
Clare:
NYS Senate Republican Campaign Committee
• 4 contributions · $21,600 (Mar 16 ’06→Oct 26 ’06)
Sarah:
NYS Senate Republican Campaign Committee
• 1 contribution · $10,000 (Mar 16 ’06)
Heidi, Clare gave the max to quite a few candidates besides Gillibrand, and Sara didn’t give anything according to what I’m seeing.
But as you’ll note in my other comments, both gave their largest amounts to the Republicans’ New York State Senate campaign fund, eclipsing all their other donations. And all their giving was mostly limited to 2006-08 election cycles. What do you think is up with that?
Raniere probably told them to do it, then got distracted with another 12 year old.
Can you post a link to your data source, please AnonyMaker? I’m not seeing an ‘06 – ‘08 pattern on Lil Sis — the links provided above. Seeing some interesting, standout donations to Clinton and Gillibrand in particular, as mentioned above, from Bronfman’s brother Matt in June 2012 for instance — a few months after the the TU pedophile expose during the Roger Kirsopp computer trespass investigation, like this:
“Hillary Clinton US Secretary of State & NY Senator; 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate
• 3 contributions · $5,400 (Mar 17 ’16→Oct 29 ’16)
Kirsten Gillibrand US Senator and Representative from New York
• 2 contributions · $5,000 (Jun 11 ’12)”
Guess if we really wanted to get serious about this we’d chart it all out and compare to what was happening at NX — ‘06 – ‘08, to answer your question. I think Frank was there for a PR push. Don’t know who or what KAR was pushin’ those days but safe to say it was mostly something or someone illegal.
Some say Vanguard was goofing with young boys those days, like Robbie Chappione and Adrian Fernandez, so who knows what Rutnik might have.
Heidi, thanks for the follow up. Even on LilSis, the pattern for Bronfman is that (adding up multiples listed in individual entries) she gave:
3 contributions in ’05
13 contributions in ’06-’08
1 contribution in ’10
5 of those contributions for a total of $24,100, over half, went to Republican funds, mostly $21,600 to a state senate campaign fund in ’06
Here sister Sara gave only 5 contributions, all in ’06-’08, including a $10,000 contribution to the same NY state fund as Clare in ’06.
So why did the Bronfmans give over $30K to state Republicans in NY in 2006?
There are no other political contributions outside the ’05-’10 time frame at all.
I don’t want to spend any more time breaking out detail for a comment nested this far down in an aging topic – perhaps the political giving deserves a piece of its own – but the other NXians I’ve looked at have the same pattern of contributions concentrated in ’06-’08, except that I don’t remember seeing any others giving to that NY state senate campaign.
And I think it’s pretty clear that Clare and Sara are on the outs with the rest of the family, so I’d assume that their half-siblings’ giving is unconnected and thus irrelevant. Is there any reason to believe otherwise?
Nancy Salzman is the highest ranking cooperator who’d have information about the Senator’s knowledge of NXIVM.
The question which Claviger’s IGNORING is this:
Will the EDNY purposely avoid asking Nancy any questions that might disclose the Senator’s knowledge about NXIVM?
It’s ironic that women like Toni, Susan, Barb and Karen (and even Keeffe) can’t provide any information to corroborate whether the Senator had any knowledge of NXIVM or not.
In my view, these women are probably too politically ‘left’ (too liberal) to ever admit anything about the Senator’s knowledge about NXIVM — even if they did know it. Thus, we must now rely on Nancy to tell us the truth.
Praise Nancy Salzman. Praise Lauren.
This mother/daughter duo will set the truth free.
They will raze this group to the ground — while exposing all of its secrets.
I can’t say enough good things about Nancy and Lauren.
I just hope the EDNY offers Lauren a nose job as part of her trial preparation costs — cuz it only costs a few thousand bucks and she needs to reduce the size of her nose by half, IMO, before she testifies in front of a jury.
It’ll make her appear more truthful. A large nose can be subliminally associated with untruthfulness, as per Pinocchio.
As long as she does not come out looking like my brother Michael after surgery.
Wasn’t Michael’s removable?
Hard to believe but apparently not says the autopsy
I wonder how much money the morgue doc was paid to say that.
Good questions, Nancy and Lauren could make up for a tiny fraction of their misdeeds by telling all they know about Sillybrand. However, it’s a very short list to say good things about Nancy and Lauren. For example, Lauren’s nose could provide a short person some significant shade on a hot, sunny day. There probably isn’t enough time for the swelling to go down before the trial, unless they bring her in towards the end. But that would make the good things to say about her much shorter, as she could no longer provide the shade compared to pre-surgery. Quite the quandry.
Nancy Salzman is NOT “cooperating” with investigators, Sherlock Schlock.
[What does that little tidbit tell you in view of the fact that it was Nancy’s pants that Gillibrand’s dad, Doug Rutnik, allegedly tried to get into — costing him $100k back in ‘08 when the naughty Nurse (practitioner) was an irresistible 53 yrs. old — just before Nancy hooked Rutnik’s baby girl, Kirsten, up to take over Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat —winning it from another dirty, old political perv, drunk caught in the act on the eve of the election.
…Lauren, who can plausibly deny knowing anything about her Mom’s sex life, is the only one “cooperating.” Officially.]
Maybe Bouchey and some of the other “Jurrassics” WOULD be sharing on FR more, Bangkok, if not for your insane, alter-ego Scott Johnson’s ludicrous, slanderous remarks no one has time to waste addressing. Does Schlock also have a foot fetish or is that just you, Bangtot?
Salzman didn’t sign a cooperation agreement, that does NOT mean that she’s not cooperating. If she doesn’t cooperate, she is likely to get a very long sentence. Either way is okay with me.
It tells me there are two possibilities. Either Rutnik actually did go after Nancy, who is 14 years younger than him, so being 53 is relative, plus by all accounts she accumulated some wealth, something that makes women “prettier.” Or it means he didn’t and they were looking to ruin his reputation and shut him up about their criminal activities, and to him it wasn’t worth the remainder of whatever was left on his $100,000 retainer plus what he had already billed.
Sillybrand was appointed, then elected after being a Senator for two years. She was essentially an incumbent in a highly Dem state. No surprise there. To top it off, her Republican opponent was very weak,who wasn’t in elected office since the 1980s, and not for lack of trying: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_DioGuardi
Sillybrand’s appointment appears to be FAR above the Bronfmans’ influence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_Senate_special_election_in_New_York
Who cares whether the “Jurrassics” comment on this website? We already know they are not trustworthy. Just like you. LOL
Anything else you’d like to reiterate about yourself, Scott Johnson of El Paso, TX — aka Bangkok, etc. — while you’re projecting your faults onto strangers as usual?
I’d agree with “untrustworthy” after observing you on here and finding out a bit about your troubles with other “competitors” — your former AMWAY distributors, your friends —how you blog bullied and placed fake orders to trounce competing sales distributors, fuck your downline — then lied that you did it to expose SCAMWAY — and how court orders were made to restrain you to protect your friends from your fraudulent, bigot breath, podophilic meglomania? Twitter banned you, too.