There’s a fun report at Big League Politics today thanks to Frank Parlato, who gave the politics site a document proving that New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s father, attorney Douglas Rutnik, was paid a $100,000 retainer by Nxivm, the group whose leaders are now facing sex slavery charges in a federal trial slated to start in a few weeks.
Parlato told the site that Rutnik was hired as a consultant but was fired and then sued by Nxivm. He provided a document showing that Rutnik was paid a $100,000 retainer.
“Her father Doug Rutnik came to work as a consultant for NXIVM…he was fired, they sued him, and they had to pay him $100,000,” Parlato told the website. “Her father’s wife, her stepmother, was also a member of NXIVM…Doug got her into the cult, Gillibrand’s father got Gillibrand’s future stepmother into the cult. Doug left the cult because he was sued. Clare Bronfman after her father was sued donated money to Gillibrand. Gillibrand accepted it.” (The court document, however, states that Rutnik was paid a $100,000 retainer, and then was required to pay that amount to settle the lawsuit.)
In March, however, a Gillibrand spokesman said that the senator only heard about Nxivm recently from press reports.
Wow, we’re having some flashbacks here. Just a few weeks ago we heard some similar denials from another Democratic presidential candidate, Hawaii US Representative Tulsi Gabbard. Her father was part of a gay-hating Hindu cabal (bizarre, we know), and Tulsi to this day still calls its leader, Chris Butler, her “guru dev.”
When reporters have dug into that story, they find themselves being flamed by Butler’s people, including an attorney used by Scientology, Anthony Glassman.
Maybe someone ought to check if Beto O’Rourke’s dad was once a Hare Krishna or something. Just sayin’.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 5, 2019 at 12:00
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Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He’s written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology’s harassment of Paulette Cooper titled ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,’ and more recently a compilation of his stories, ‘Battlefield Scientology.’ He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world, as well as other subjects at The Underground Bunker. You can reach him by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you’d like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.)
