A conservative watchdog group is calling for billionaire Democratic megadonor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman’s ouster from the Microsoft board of directors.
The National Legal and Policy Center is a shareholder in the company and argues that Hoffman’s political activism, as well as his past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, harm the company’s image.
"While the National Legal and Policy Center respects Mr. Hoffman’s right to make political donations, as Microsoft shareholders, we believe his partisan political activities damage the firm’s reputation," says a letter sent this month from Paul Chesser, director of the NLPC Corporate Integrity Project, to Sandra E. Peterson, the Microsoft legal independent director and chair of the governance nominating committee.
Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in 2003, sold it to Microsoft in 2016 for $26.2 billion, and joined the Microsoft board of directors.
"In addition, Mr. Hoffman’s political activism, and affiliation with controversial and unethical organizations, risk alienating a significant portion of the firm’s customer base, which could be offended by Mr. Hoffman’s political activities," the NLPC letter continues. "He often adopts a caustic and vindictive approach, which is unbecoming of a signature representative of the company, not to mention as the iconic co-founder of one of its top products."
The letter asks the board to request Hoffman’s resignation and to prevent him from running for another term on the board.
A Microsoft spokesperson told FOX Business that "Microsoft has nothing to share."
FOX also reached out to Greylock, a venture capital firm where Hoffman is a partner to attempt to get a comment from Hoffman. The company did not respond by publication time.
The NLPC letter’s first objection was, "Mr. Hoffman’s ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are a significant liability to Microsoft’s reputation."
The Wall Street Journal first reported in May that Hoffman visited Epstein’s private Caribbean Island, called Little St. James, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, on at least one occasion in 2014. The report also revealed Hoffman was planning to stay at Epstein’s luxury Manhattan townhouse in December 2014 after a late arrival in New York City.
"Mr. Hoffman’s connections with Mr. Epstein present a significant liability to Microsoft’s brand," the Friday NLPC letter to Microsoft says.
The letter states Hoffman’s "unethical and brazenly political activism make him unsuitable to serve on Microsoft’s board."
The letter mentions that he financed Project Birmingham during Alabama’s special U.S. Senate election 2017. Hoffman was forced to issue an apology in 2018 when it came to light the project falsely tried to give the impression that the Russian government was supporting Alabama Republican candidate Roy Moore in the special Senate election. Moore lost the race to Democrat Doug Jones.
The letter notes that court filings showed that Hoffman — through his nonprofit American Future Republic — paid the legal bills of E. Jean Carroll, a former journalist who successfully sued Donald Trump for defamation after the 45th president denied her allegation of sexual assault from the mid-1990s.
The letter goes on to note that Hoffman provided financial backing to digital advertising firm MotiveAI. The company set up a page called "Drain the Swamp," which during the rocky Supreme Court confirmation battle over Brett Kavanaugh, promoted a conspiracy theory that in the 1990s Kavanaugh helped former President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton cover up the murder of a White House aide, the Daily Beast reported. Another page called the Keg Bros., made sexist comments about Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hi., and Republican megadonor Rebekah Mercer.
The letter notes that Hoffman helped finance ACROYNYM, a liberal "dark money" group, that sets up partisan local news outlets. ACRONYM launched Shadow, Inc., the vendor which was involved in the botched voter tabulation during the 2020 Democratic Iowa Caucuses, according to Open Secrets.
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Hoffman has a net worth of $2.2 billion, according to Forbes. He was also a pivotal investor in Airbnb and PayPal.
Fox News Digital previously reported the Biden Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee authorized by President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, received a $699,600 donation from Hoffman on April 26 and a maximum donation of $6,600 went directly to Biden’s campaign.
Politico reported earlier this month that Hoffman convened a Zoom call with 30 "like-minded donors" to discuss what they considered a peril of a viable third-party campaign to the chances of Biden’s re-election in 2024.
The National Legal and Policy Center will seek the support of state treasurers in red states for booting Hoffman from the Microsoft board, Chesser said. Many Republican state treasurers, in their capacity representing their state pension funds, have opposed what they considered woke corporate policies.
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With Microsoft based in Washington state, Chesser said he isn’t entirely optimistic Microsoft will embrace the suggestion.
"Microsoft is not in Silicon Valley, but it is on the left coast based in that leftwing cabal of Big Tech," Chesser said.
