“This is entirely a personal matter; this matter has nothing to do with Apollo or my decision to step away from the firm.”

We mean, sure, the timing of the revelation of that “personal matter”—an affair with a Russian model which we could very much imagine having a negative impact on Debra Black’s well-being—and Black’s hastened and more complete-than-expected exit certainly seems suspicious, he assures us that the two have nothing to do with one another, and also that said Russian model is a total liar except about the sex part.

Neither Black nor Apollo mentioned at the time that days leading up to the resignation at least four of Apollo’s 12 board members had become aware of a series of little-noticed but explosive tweets by Güzel Ganieva, a former model who claimed to have been “forced to sign an NDA in 2015” relating to allegations that Black “sexually harassed and abused ” her, according to sources close to the situation….

“I foolishly had a consensual affair with Ms. Ganieva that ended more than seven years ago,” Black said in his statement. “Any allegation of harassment or any other inappropriate behavior towards her is completely fabricated….”

Black added that he believes he was being “extorted” by Ganieva because he had allegedly “made substantial monetary payments to her, based on her threats to go public concerning our relationship, in an attempt to spare my family from public embarrassment.”

The billionaire said he has referred the matter to “the criminal authorities” at the recommendation of his counsel and welcomes “a thorough investigation.”

We’re sure he does. After all, unlike the previous round of “thorough investigations,” Black doesn’t have anything left to lose from this one.

Leon Black’s surprise Apollo Global exit came amid sexual harassment allegation [N.Y. Post]

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Steve Schwarzman never gives to Democratic candidates. Literally never, according to OpenSecrets.org. Druckenmiller hasn’t given much to that side recently, either, and when he did, it tended to go to the likes of Tulsi Gabbard.

So what’s so special about this Democratic candidate? This Michelle Caruso-Cabrera from New York’s 14th congressional district, covering some seriously unglamorous stretches of Queens and the Bronx?

Oh, right: There’s nothing special about Michelle Caruso-Cabrera other than the fact that she isn’t the current representative for the 14th: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Well, that’s not entirely fair, at least as far as the aforementioned donors and the others who gave this first-time candidate a $2 million (and counting!) war chest that would be the envy of most first-time candidates, to say nothing of, like, 350 sitting members of Congress. After all, she used to be on CNBC, and is married to one of them, which is to say an investment banker who’s also a big-time Republican donor. Oh, yea, and she’s not really a Democrat: She was a registered Republican until 2015, five years after writing a book (with foreword by Larry Kudlow!) with the tremendously original title of You Know I’m Right, pushing such traditional Democratic positions as an end to Medicare and Social Security.

Not that any of that was mentioned in the fliers overstuffing my mailbox or the television ads blanketing the tristate area over the last couple of weeks, all paid for by Druckenmiller & co. They instead focused on the allegation that Ocasio-Cortez, who after all was elected to a job in Washington, was an absentee congresswoman who didn’t really grow up in the Bronx but in leafy Westchester and who in D.C. lives in a “luxury apartment with a Whole Foods in the lobby,” accusations with a spectacular degree of chutzpah from a candidate born in Ohio and raised in New Hampshire who moved to one of the leafiest, whitest and most affluent corners of an overwhelmingly working-class and immigrant district all the way back in, uh, December, seemingly for the expressed purpose of running for the seat, having spent most of Ocasio-Cortez’s first year in Congress, and the 19 before that, living in Manhattan (at the Trump International Hotel and Tower, no less). Still, they got all the people usually interested in New York City Democratic congressional primaries very excited indeed.

Alas, for Caruso-Cabrera and her donors, if only she had as much success as she has disingenuousness.

That’s about $4.13 of Stan Druckenmiller’s money alone per vote, although surely that ratio should fall below $4 once the absentee ballots are counted next week. Probably. Anyway, he’s getting used to bad investments and humbling experiences, such as having to see these tweets.

Wall Street CEOs, from Goldman Sachs to Blackstone, poured in millions to defeat our grassroots campaign tonight.

But their money couldn’t buy a movement.

Thank you #NY14, and every person who pitched in for tonight’s victory.

Here’s to speaking truth to power. pic.twitter.com/g9aRV3Cu1B

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 24, 2020

When I won in 2018, many dismissed our victory as a “fluke.”

Our win was treated as an aberration, or bc my opponent “didn’t try.”

So from the start, tonight’s race was important to me.

Tonight we are proving that the people’s movement in NY isn’t an accident. It‘s a mandate.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 24, 2020

Of course, if Druckenmiller, Asness & co. would like some additional humbling, there’s good news: Caruso-Cabrera has secured the ballot line of something called the Serve America Movement party, which has all of 349 registered members in New York, for November, so there’s an opportunity to throw some more good money after bad.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez triumphs over Wall Street-backed Democratic primary opponent Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and all but secures a 2nd term [BI]