Steve Wynn has resigned from his position as Republican National Committee Finance Chair, following revelations of decades of alleged sexual misconduct against female employees at Wynn Resorts, Politico reported.
Politico reported last Saturday Wynn’s statement following the breaking news of the allegations: “Effective today I am resigning…The unbelievable success we have achieved must continue. The work we are doing to make America a better place is too important to be impaired by this distraction”.
The Wall Street Journal originally reported on Friday that a number of women said they were harassed or assaulted by the casino mogul and finance chair of the Republican National Committee.
One case led to a $7.5 million settlement with a manicurist. The detailed report relies on interviews with dozens of people whom corroborate a decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct with female employees.
The victim alleged that Wynn forced her to have sex with him, shortly opening up his flagship casino Wynn, Las Vegas in 2005, the WSJ reported.
After giving Mr. Wynn a manicure he pressured her to take her clothes off and told her to lie on the massage table he kept in his office suite. The manicurist gave this account to several other employees who all remembered the same story.
The incident was referenced, in broad terms, in a lawsuit in which Mr. Wynn’s ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, who is seeking to lift restrictions on the sale of her stock in Wynn Resorts Ltd.
The Wall Street Journal also interviewed many other people who worked with Wynn at the casinos and they all told similar stories of Wynn pressuring women employees to have sex with him.
Mr. Wynn responded to the WSJ’s report with a written statement: “The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous… We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth, and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multi-year lawsuits. It is deplorable for anyone to find themselves in this situation.”
Wynn also stated that ‘the instigation of these accusations is the continued work of my ex-wife Elaine, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement.”
As a result of the WSJ story, Wynn Resorts has lost over $3.5 Billion in value and many are concerned about how directly the allegations could impact operations.
Many Republicans have distanced themselves as a result of the fallout and have decided to give donations made by Wynn and his organizations to charity. House Speaker Paul Ryan , Sen. Rob Portman, , and Sen. Jeff Flake, are among the Republicans donating Wynn money to charity.
By Miles Stern
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