Update: Click to read the full, unredacted lawsuit
Legal documents obtained by Valiant News accuse the controversial Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs of both holding anti-Christian and anti-MAGA biases and discrimination which led to the 2016 firing of the bank’s only employee to donate to the 2016 presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump.
A lawsuit prepared against Goldman Sachs shows the bank’s former Associate, Luke David Thorburn-Calcino, was preparing to sue after he was fired in 2016 following news articles about his support for Trump’s presidential campaign and alleged links to a website that advocated for America First policies and Christianity.
Valiant News has learned that Goldman Sachs ultimately settled with the fired ex-employee and alleged discrimination victim for a six-figure sum in a move that could be interpreted as an admission of wrongdoing.
While the former Goldman Sachs employee was terminated following the discovery of his donations to the Trump campaign, his alleged ties to an online Christian store reportedly run by his then-girlfriend were raised as concerns by the bank.
While legally classified as a donation, Thorburn-Calcino actually purchased $534.58 worth of “Make America Great Again” hats from the Trump campaign’s web store. Some of the merchandise, Valiant News learned, was apparently used for a Goldman Sachs team event.
Thorburn-Calcino also reported the hat purchase, classified as a political donation, to his Goldman Sachs superiors when the transaction occurred and reported no problems until the first of several New York Times hit pieces were published.
Additionally, Valiant News has learned Thorburn-Calcino‘s firing came after a very recent promotion, which included a pay raise, and after his work received praise from Goldman Sachs leadership – including in-writing by then-CEO Lloyd Blankfein – before the New York Times published a its article exposing Thorburn-Calcino as the only Goldman Sachs employee who donated to Trump’s Presidential campaign.
While the New York Times led the coverage, the former Goldman Sachs employee’s firing was covered by multiple financial news outlets in early 2016, including Bloomberg and the Australian Financial Review (AFR).
Both publications, as well as London’s Financial Times, directly linked Thorburn-Calcino’s firing to his MAGA hat purchase, which is consistent with the accusations made against Goldman Sachs in Thorburn-Calcino’s lawsuit.
In his complaint, Thorburn-Calcino alleged violations of various human rights and labor statutes, including the New York State Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, and the New York Labor Law.
“Beginning in or around November 2015, Mr. Thorburn donated approximately $534.58 to the Presidential campaign of Donald Trump through the purchase of hats bearing Mr. Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan,” according to the lawsuit.
A few months later, on February 23, 2016, The New York Times published an article titled “Donald Trump in New York: Deep Roots, but Little Influence,” exposing Thorburn-Calcino’s donation, the prepared complaint goes on to explain.
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Additionally, The New York Times article implied that Thorburn-Calcino was operating a website called www.makechristianitygreatagain.com, however, the legal document explains the website was “owned and operated as a sole proprietorship by Mr. Thorburn’s girlfriend, and Mr. Thorburn has no proprietary or other interest in that online store or the potential revenues generated from any sales derived from the website.”
Even though Thorburn-Calcino was not running the Christian website, the lawsuit alleges his links to the Christian faith were too much for his bosses at Goldman Sachs.
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The lawsuit also named Goldman Sachs Managing Director and Head of their Partners’ Coverage Group, Greg Hoogkamp, as a defendant.
Thorburn-Calcino accused Goldman Sachs and Greg Hoogkamp of blatant political discrimination as well as religious discrimination.
This would not have been Hoogkamp’s first or last experience as a defendant, as he and colleague Corey Jassem have featured prominently in other New York Southern District Court religious discrimination suits.
Several other high-ranking Goldman Sachs employees are mentioned throughout the legal documents reviewed by Valiant News. It is alleged that Thorburn-Calcino’s termination was “greenlit” by the Goldman Sachs Executive Office, where the bank’s CEO Lloyd Bankfein at the time worked. Bankfein, around that time, claimed he was doing God’s work.
Valiant News learned Goldman Sachs retained top white shoe law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell (S&C), to defend against Thorburn-Calcino.
In an attempt to crush the “little guy,” S&C engaged their own Theodore (Ted) Rogers, an S&C Partner recognized as one of the top employment law attorneys in the United States. S&C, in a David vs. Goliath battle against anti-Communist operative Thorburn-Calcino, is noted as one of the most profitable law firms in the world, with 2021 profits per partner exceeding $6 million.
While moving against Thorburn-Calcino’s employment for his support of President Trump, Goldman Sachs senior managers even threw faith-based insults at Thorburn-Calcino’s then-girlfriend, who in addition to running a Christian web store, worked as a model, the legal documents allege.
Naturally, this resulted in the accusations of anti-Christian discrimination being part of Thorburn-Calcino’s suit against Goldman Sachs.
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Though Thorburn-Calinco’s bosses had initially indicated that he was under suspension and would be able to return to work, he was officially fired after continued media coverage from The New York Times and others, with Goldman Sachs’ Managing Director, Greg Hoogkamp, telling Thorburn-Calinco outright that he was being fired over the “Trump stuff,” according to legal Complaint documents – though Goldman chalked Thorburn-Calcino’s departure up to very different reasons in official documents rescinding his employment and, therefore, his American work visa, in what emails reviewed by Valiant News indicate Thorburn-Calcino considered an effort to inflict as much damage on the Australian-American Trump supporter as possible.
In the fallout from Thorburn-Calcino’s ousting, Goldman Sachs then instituted a draconian corporate policy summed up by Fortune headline: “Goldman Sachs Bans Employees from Donating to Donald Trump.”
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Partisan globalist outlet, Bloomberg, owned by former Trump rival “Mini,” also warned the Wall Street world of the “Dangers of Donating to the Trump-Pence ticket.” CNBC also notes Goldmans’ un-American voter suppression with the headline “Goldman Sachs Bans Top Employees from Donating to Trump.”
While Thorburn-Calcino was ultimately fired by Goldman Sachs and forced to leave the United States, his suit against Goldman Sachs, charging the Wall Street banking giant with anti-MAGA and anti-Christian discrimination, ended in what could be considered an admission of guilt, as Thorburn-Calcino received a verified six-figure settlement.
Thorburn-Calcino now works counter-narcotics, where he has been hailed for his “unparalleled” ability to “snuff out corruption, narco and sex trafficking.”
He is credited with outing the alleged connection between Mark Epstein, the brother of Jeffrey Epstein, to the CCP-wedded and frontier orphanage-linked “Humpty Dumpty Institute,” about which stories have been published in the Washington Examiner and Breitbart.
Goldman Sachs, a close partner of the U.S. government described as a “vampire squid” by Rolling Stone magazine, continues to oppose Trump nearly eight years after firing Thorburn-Calcino following his political donation.
Former Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn hosted a fundraiser for the failed presidential campaign of former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley last November, and even as Haley’s chances dwindled in December, a Republican megadonor told German-owned Politico in December, “The street still hopes for somebody else” while attending a Goldman Sachs conference.
Goldman Sachs’ continued opposition to the former president comes despite the praise offered by Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, for Trump in January. Dimon additionally warned that demonization of Trump’s supporters is bad for the country.
