DIRTY MONEY

The Ian Reisner/Ted Cruz Saga Continues With $2,700 Donation Cover-Up

Screen shot 2015-05-29 at 11.43.02 AMThe news just keeps getting worse for Ian Reisner.

The New York hotelier and his ex-lover-turned-business-partner, Mati Weiderpass, first came under fire earlier this year when they hosted a dinner for Ted Cruz, the antigay Texas senator running for president.

Related: Why Were AntiGay Crusader Ted Cruz And Gay Hotelier Ian Reisner Hanging Out At Reisner’s Pad?

Afterwards, Reisner claimed the dinner wasn’t a fundraiser and that he didn’t give Cruz any money, telling New York magazine: “There were no checks given. It was nothing like that.”

Well, it turns out that was a bunch of Bologna with a capital B.

The New York Times has just learned that Reisner wrote a personal check to Mr. Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign in the amount of $2,700, the maximum allowed by law, right around the time the dinner took place.

Related: Ian Reisner Calls Gay People “Cheap” And “Entitled” While Trying To Defend His Dinner For Ted Cruz

After the story about the dinner broke, Reisner decided it was probably best to cancel the donation, so he called up his buddy Ted to ask for a refund.

“In the interest of transparency,” Reisner told The Times in a statement, “I gave Senator Cruz a $2,700 check to show my support for his work on behalf of Israel.”

(Ian, if you’re reading, you can’t say you’re being “transparent” by admitting you did something after you’ve already been exposed by a major news outlet for doing it.)

Reisner continued: “When I realized his donation could be misconstrued as supporting his anti-gay marriage agenda, I asked for the money back. Senator Cruz’s office gave the money back, and I have no intention of giving any money to any politicians who aren’t in support of L.G.B.T. issues.”

We should hope so.

Related: New York Club Promoter Tells Ian Reisner Not To Blame Gays For His Business Mistakes

According to The Times, as a result of this whole fiasco, Reisner and Weiderpass have become “pariahs in New York City’s gay rights community,” despite making a $20,000 donation to the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association as a goodwill gesture.

NYT chatted with Jon Reinish, a noted Democratic strategist who works with several gay rights causes, who added some additional perspective on the misdeed. “They sat down with a proud enemy of the gay community,” he said. “Ted Cruz legislates on that, he runs on that. It’s one of the foundations of his platform and it’s not just opposition to gay marriage. He’s against basic civil rights and he’s been out there on that from the very beginning.”

Evidently Reisner has yet to learn, money can’t buy forgiveness.

Or class, for that matter.

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