Trump’s post-presidency super PAC — his so-called Save America PAC, as it’s known — is under investigation by federal authorities tied to potential violations of the law.
Reports indicate an array of federal grand jury subpoenas recently went out, seeking info related to the Trump-branded organization’s operations. Notably, these publicly available details of interest at the Justice Department in Trump’s PAC, generally known as a leadership PAC, come after the House committee investigating the Capitol riot spotlighted the brazenly deceptive pretenses under which the Trump team raised massive amounts of money — meaning hundreds of millions of dollars — after the last presidential election. In one example, donors were asked for contributions to an “Official Election Defense Fund,” but that fund didn’t actually exist. Most of the donations didn’t even directly support any election-related litigation once Trump and his goons got the disputed money. More generally, Trump and his allies also raised funds under the demonstrably false notion some authority might legitimately overturn the presidential election.
Topics of interest to Justice Department investigators, per recent subpoenas, include the formation of the Trump PAC and both its fundraising and spending. Subpoenas targeted individuals like Trump aides Beau Harrison and William S. Russell, both of whom have worked for Trump before and after Donald left office. Although the organization was involved, not all of the money raised after the election by Trump and his Republican allies supported his Save America PAC, which since brought in more than $135 million following its founding, according to info from ABC. The organization also holds a large amount of cash on hand, meaning available funds: just under $100 million at the close of July, according to available details. Legally speaking, the Federal Election Commission specifies that a so-called leadership PAC is unaffiliated with a campaign committee, meaning the PAC isn’t bound by campaign fundraising restrictions.
Previous comments from Trump seemingly indicated he was delaying announcing his decision about running in the 2024 presidential race because of trying to get around federal campaign fundraising rules. Meanwhile, Trump is facing other legal scrutiny, from the criminal investigation at the U.S. Justice Department into the handling of highly sensitive documents from his administration to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s election meddling probe in Georgia. According to the Times, the federal subpoenas seeking info on Trump’s Save America PAC were seemingly issued by a grand jury different from the one working on a federal probe into the scheme after the 2020 election to assemble fake electoral votes for Trump in states Biden won.
The Times also says one of the new subpoenas in the Save America PAC investigation features the name of an experienced fraud prosecutor, which certainly suggests the key areas of interest in looking at the PAC: potential financial misconduct. “Throughout the committee’s investigation, we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for. So not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off,” Rep. Zoe Lofrgen (D-Calif.) said during a riot committee hearing in June.
Image: Gage Skidmore/ Creative Commons
