Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn collected $32,000 in pandemic aid before working on 2020 campaign

A longtime Donald Trump adviser quietly collected ten of thousands of dollars in Covid-19 relief funds shortly before earning much more as a strategic advisor on Trump’s failed 2020 presidential campaign, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Records show that Boris Epshteyn applied for the $32,600 loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, designed to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic crisis.

But Epshteyn, a political strategist, attorney, and investment banker, was hardly struggling. According to Fortune, the 43-year-old Russian-American had a stake worth between $1 million and $5 million in TGP Securities, a New Jersey firm where he previously worked as a manager director.

Between 2017 and December 2019, he was employed as a senior political commentator for Sinclair Broadcasting Group.

His Sinclair show was taken off the air in December, 2019, but sources say he stayed on as an advisor.

‘Boris was a one-man band in his consulting business,’ says one insider. ‘But the PPP money was there, so he did what a lot of people did.

'He took the pay day.

'But he was a man of means and probably knew that before long he would be on the Trump campaign’s payroll.’

When contacted, Epshteyn, who served as the strategic advisor and co-chair of the Jewish Voices for Trump Advisory Board on Trump's 2000 campaign, declined to comment.

Epshteyn was hired by the campaign in early June 2020 and worked until December. Federal Election Commission records show he was paid around $10,000 per month for a total of $66,500.

Just two months before his hiring, in April, he received the $32,600 PPP 'loan', which he requested for his one-man consultancy, Boris Epshteyn Inc., run out of his house near Princeton, New Jersey. 

Records identify him as providing ‘administrative management and general management consulting services,’ with no employees apart from himself.

The U.S. Small Business Administration, through the PPP program, issued nearly a trillion dollars in loans to keep millions of businesses and sole proprietors employed during the pandemic.

Epshteyn applied the same month the federal program was enacted, and has never had to pay it back. This was typical of a program that was seen as vital for many recipients, but also wasteful for others who didn’t actually need the free money.

Epshteyn, for his part, was never accused of defrauding the program. 

Public documents provide very little detail on his application, how he justified the expense, and why he was approved. 

State records in New Jersey show Boris Epshteyn Inc. was created in 2014 as a domestic profit corporation, and lists Georgetown Advisory as an associated name, with Epshteyn as the only reported officer.

In his online biography, he identifies himself as founder and president of Georgetown Advisory consulting group.

And in addition to his political and media pursuits, he lists himself as a partner at a boutique investment bank specializing in private equity and venture capital transactions.

Epshteyn was a key player in the so-called fake electors scheme that sought to overturn the 2020 election, for which he and several other Trump allies are currently under indictment in Arizona.

He was also arrested in Arizona in October 2021, when he was accused of inappropriately touching two young women in a nightclub, according to police records.

A security guard at the Bottled Blonde nightclub in Scottsdale flagged down police. One of the women was seen crying on police body camera footage as she described Epshteyn groping her and her sister.

Epshteyn, curled over on the sidewalk outside, was hauled off with his hands cuffed behind his back.

He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges after prosecutors dropped charges of attempted sexual abuse, assault-touching and ‘harass-repeated acts.’ He paid a fine and served probation, and his conviction was later set aside.

His close relationship with Trump traces back to his friendship with Eric Trump at Georgetown University, where both were undergrad students. He was a guest at Eric's 2014 wedding.

Epshteyn also served as a senior advisor during the 2016 presidential campaign and made regular television appearances as a Trump surrogate. He also briefly worked in the White House communications office when Trump took office in 2017.

In recent days, he’s been advising the president-elect on appointments for his new administration, and clashed last week with a new power broker in Trump world. 

Axios reported that the Tesla founder and Epshteyn argued before guests at Mar-a-Lago. The report claimed Musk bristled at Epshteyn's influence on Cabinet picks and accused him of leaking details to the media, charges he vociferously denied.