Billionaire charged in Florida prostitution sting donated $50K to RNC
John Childs, a billionaire financier charged in a Florida prostitution sting, donated $50,000 last month to the Republican National Committee, newly filed campaign reports show.
Childs, a longtime Republican donor, made two contributions to the party committee on Feb. 19, just days before news of the Florida charge broke.
RNC officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the donation. Attempts to reach Childs on Thursday morning were unsuccessful.
Childs was charged last month with soliciting prostitution. He has denied wrongdoing, telling Bloomberg News last month that the “accusation of solicitation of prostitution is totally false.”
On Feb. 25, the private equity firm Childs helped found announced his retirement as chairman.
More than 100 people have been charged in Florida as part of a months-long sex-trafficking investigation of massage parlors in the state.
Last month, as The Washington Post first reported, two Republican senators — Arizona Sen. Martha McSally and Indiana Sen. Mike Braun — said they would donate contributions from Childs to charity.
Childs has donated millions to Republican political operations in recent years, including $250,000 in the 2018 midterms to American First Action, a super PAC that supports President Donald Trump. He also has made six-figure donations to America Rising, a Republican super PAC that supports digging up damaging information about Democrats, and the Senate Leadership Fund, which worked to successfully preserve the GOP’s hold on the Senate.
