Taylor Budowich, an associate to former President Donald Trump who has been identified as a founder of the political action committee Make America Great Again Inc., was appearing before a grand jury in Florida on Wednesday as part of ongoing federal criminal investigations around the former president.
Budowich, who has also served as a spokesperson for the former president, was reported to be appearing in the context of the criminal probe into the handling of classified documents from Donald’s time in office. The involvement of a Florida jury in hearing evidence in that probe, which is led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, was only reported recently.
There is a widespread suspicion — evidently held even by Trump himself — that the former president could face criminal charges in this inquiry, though there has been no confirmation to that effect from investigators and likely won’t be until any charges are actually brought. At issue are potential crimes including obstruction and mishandling of protected national security secrets, and for both, a federal judge has already agreed there was enough evidence to at least suggest Trump’s guilt. The judge was ruling on whether to bring Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran in for further testimony.
The PAC in which Budowich is involved, which is a super PAC, spent big during the 2022 midterm elections in a number of high-stakes Senate races in which Trump’s preferred candidates lost. That list includes contests in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada, where their spending reached millions of dollars per state. The organization did spend on the Ohio Senate race as well, though, and in that contest, Trump-aligned Republican J.D. Vance was victorious. In a piece of the data that feels telling about their overall strategies, Make America Great Again Inc. spent far more in each of these races that was listed as in opposition to the Democratic candidates than supporting the Republicans. The organization appears to have Trump’s support, though it’s not an official arm of his campaign, with strict rules in place that generally block close cooperation between these secondary organizations and candidates’ central campaign committees.
