RFK Jr’s running mate allegedly tried to bribe Washington Post with $500,000 to reveal sources

AP Photo/Eric Gay

Nicole Shanahan has “taken advantage of a vast divorce settlement” from Google co-founder Sergey Brin launch itself into the conservative political ecosphere, reported The Washington Post — and the report includes the stunning claim that she offered a $500,000 bribe to the newspaper’s reporters to reveal the sources who were talking about her.

THE Posts Shanahan’s detailed profile by Elizabeth Dwoskin, Ashley Parker, Meryl Kornfieldand Aaron Schaffer“Nicole Shanahan’s Surprising Journey From Tech Royalty to MAGA Rising Star,” was published on Wednesday and covers the lawyer and tech entrepreneur’s path to becoming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running mate and enjoying newfound fame on the right after he dropped out of the race and supported the former president donald trump.

Shanahan “has become a powerful supporter” of Trump, the report said. Publishby “encouraging independent voters to support his bid for the White House on Fox News, a series of podcasts and his increasingly popular social media feed.” She also “rebranded herself as a wellness guru promising to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ (MAHA)” — an obvious play on Trump’s MAGA slogan.

The article is full of juicy details about Shanahan’s whirlwind romance with Brin – reportedly sparked after they met while she was engaged to her first husband, Jeremy Kranzwho “soon discovered the affair” and “sought to annul the marriage after just 27 days” – a volatile relationship that created divisions with Brin’s family and professional colleagues and then collapsed into scandal amid a Wall Street Journal report that she had an affair with a longtime friend of Brin’s Elon Musk.

As sources for this report, the Publish cited “34 people familiar with his rise, many of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive matters, along with court documents, photographs, text messages and screenshots,” and noted that many of Shanahan’s former Valley associates Silicon leaders are now worried she will use the huge pile of money she got in her divorce settlement with Brin to “turn the tenuous dispute between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, or disseminate unverified medical opinions to a wide audience.”

The article also includes this anecdote of how Shanahan reacted when he learned of the Publish was working on a story about her – trying to bribe reporters into revealing their sources:

Shanahan became aware of the reporting for this article when she and Kennedy were still campaigning. In June, she texted an associate who had been contacted by The Post to suggest a deal: Shanahan said he would “pay your friend” – a Post reporter – “half a million dollars to be a whistleblower” to expose people Shanahan claimed were spreading false information about her.

The contact relayed the offer to a Post reporter, who did not respond. After multiple requests for interviews with Shanahan since April, The Washington Post sent her a detailed list of questions last week. She said she rejected parts of the Post’s reporting but did not offer specific responses. “I am very sorry that you feel it is appropriate to do this for political reasons,” she said. “It’s a very sad state our country is in.”

Read the article at The Washington Post.

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