WASHINGTON – Peter Cook, who humiliated his supermodel wife, Christie Brinkley, by bedding a doe-eyed teen in the Hamptons, has given thousands in campaign cash to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The senator, who champions women’s causes and children’s issues, is the biggest recipient of Cook’s generosity to politicians – raking in $13,000 from him since 2000 for her campaign war chests, according to records.
Asked by The Post whether she will return the contributions, Clinton said, “I’ll have to look into it.”
Clinton refused to answer further questions about Cook, waving her hand and turning away with no reply.
Campaign aide Ann Lewis later said, “Senator Clinton has met Peter Cook. We do not intend to return his contributions.”
A stunning photograph obtained by The Post reveals that Clinton, Cook and Brinkley hobnobbed like best friends at a Sag Harbor event in July 2001.
As beautiful teen Diana Bianchi told The Post, Cook hit on her at a Hamptons toy store, then gave her a job at his architecture firm and seduced her.
Bianchi’s high-powered attorney, Joseph Tacopina, says Bianchi has “a great sexual-harassment claim.”
“He hired her to bed her,” he has said.
But Cook is trying to salvage his marriage to the beautiful Brinkley, and “hopes there’s no divorce,” his lawyer, Norman Sheresky, told The Post’s Cindy Adams in a story published yesterday.
Cook’s Clinton donations were spread out between 2001 and 2004, long after his sex romps with pop singer Samantha Cole, who was then about 18, and just before he picked up Bianchi, now 19, last summer.
Like his cheating ways, Cook’s contributions to Clinton appear to be a summer tradition.
In August 2004, Cook gave $2,000 to the Friends of Hillary, which funds Clinton’s Senate campaign.
Just days later, he cut a $5,000 check to HillPAC, the same day Brinkley shelled out $5,000. HillPAC is another fund-raising entity established by Clinton that she uses to support Democratic candidates around the country.
Back in June 2002, Cook gave HillPAC another $5,000 check. In July 2001, he chipped in $1,000.
Cook also steered money to other Democratic bigwigs, including Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). He gave $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004.
“I met him. I think I know him,” Kerry said. Asked about the stunning reports about Cook’s adultery, Kerry replied, “I would want to know the facts before I make a comment on it.”
Cook also gave $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee around the time of the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston.