Both President Joe Biden's and Arizona Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly's campaigns hired K2 Intelligence, the private company that the legal team of disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein used to investigate and smear a woman who accused him of sexual assault, The Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday.
Federal Election Commission records show that Biden's campaign paid $7,728 to K2 Intelligence in November and December for unspecified duties, while Kelly's campaign hired the firm for more than $314,000 for "security" from December to March of this year.
The Kelly campaign told the Free Beacon that it paid K2 the money to provide security for the candidate and his wife, but that it no longer uses the firm.
Weinstein's legal team had used K2 to dig up dirt on Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, who had accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in 2015.
Election filings show that the lawyer who supervised K2's work for Weinstein, Elkan Abramowitz, contributed $6,600 to Biden’s campaign and a pro-Biden political committee, according to the Free Beacon.
The Guardian reported that K2 has also performed duties for other controversial figures, with spies working for the company allegedly infiltrating an anti-asbestos group on behalf of a corporate client in the asbestos industry.
During the campaign in which Kelly beat Republican Martha McSally in a special election in Novembe last year, the Arizona senator had also been involved in controversy over his business ties with China.
The Free Beacon reported last year that Kelly profited from his connections in China after taking part in a forum in 2003 cohosted by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, which is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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