Luke Thorburn, the Goldman Sachs employee identified in a New York Times story last week as the only person at the company to contribute to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, has been placed on administrative leave.

In September, Thorburn made two donations to the Trump campaign, totaling $534.58. He has also trademarked the phrase “Make Christianity Great Again,” and is associated with a website that sells hats bearing the slogan—an allusion to Trump’s “Make America Great Again.”

The hats, the Times reports, and not the campaign contributions, is likely what got him into trouble:

Goldman employees are allowed to pursue outside business opportunities, but they first must get clearance from the company. Mr. Thorburn, a financial adviser in the bank’s wealth management division, had not received approval before pursuing the hat endeavor.

Goldman, according to people briefed on the situation but not authorized to speak on the record, put Mr. Thorburn on paid administrative leave last week after he was interviewed by company officials about details that appeared in The Times’s article.

These people say that Mr. Thorburn sought to distance himself from the website. Ultimately, the bank became concerned about apparent inconsistencies in Mr. Thorburn’s story, and placed him on leave, they said.

Since 2013, FEC records show, Goldman employees have given more than $94,000 to Hillary Clinton and more than $199,000 to Marco Rubio.


Image via MakeChristianityGreatAgain.com. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.