Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s father was paid tens of thousands of dollars nearly two decades ago by President Trump to lobby against a competing casino.
Doug Rutnik, a lawyer and lobbyist, was one of 10 lobbyists and firms hired by Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts in an effort to stop the St. Regis Mohawk tribe from developing a casino in the Catskill Mountains, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trump was running a casino in Atlantic City, N.J., at the time.
Rutnik was paid $22,715 for his work in 2000.
Republican operative Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, was also part of the effort.
A judge later ruled, in response to a lawsuit, that the Mohawk tribe would need the state legislature’s approval for the casino.
Gillibrand launched her 2020 presidential campaign in March with a rally outside Trump Tower in New York, calling the president a “coward.”
A spokeswoman for her campaign told the Wall Street Journal that Rutnik had never met Trump nor Stone and did not remember speaking to them during the lobbying efforts. Two other lobbyists on the team said Rutnik participated in conference calls conducted by Stone.
