Trump’s Save America PAC Under Investigation In January 6 Probe

Topline

A grand jury investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the aftermath of the 2020 election is looking into former President Donald Trump’s Save America PAC, multiple outlets reported Thursday, the latest legal issue to befall the ex-president after the House January 6 Committee accused the fundraising group of misleading donors after the election.

Key Facts

The grand jury has issued subpoenas to “several individuals in recent weeks,” ABC News first reported, citing anonymous sources with direct knowledge of the investigation, while the New York Times reports subpoenas were issued to aides who worked both at the White House and on the Trump campaign.

The subpoenas have sought information about the timeline of the PAC’s formation, its “fundraising activities” and how it spends and receives money, according to ABC.

Trump’s Save America PAC was formed in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election and has raised $103.8 million as of July, according to disclosures made to the Federal Elections Commission and published by OpenSecrets.

The House January 6 Committee has accused Trump of asking donors after the election to contribute to an allegedly fake “Official Election Defense Fund” that purported to finance Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, but committee lawmakers allege actually just funneled money into the PAC—which has few restrictions on how money can be spent and can more broadly be used to fund Trump’s own expenses and pro-Trump allies and organizations.

Thousands of dollars in PAC money has flowed back into Trump’s own businesses, and Save America has garnered headlines for such expenditures as a $1 million donation to a group linked to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, an alleged $60,000 payment to Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle for her speech at the January 6 rally that preceded the Capitol attack, as well as a $60,000 payment to former First Lady Melania Trump’s stylist and funding for her and Trump’s presidential portraits.

The Justice Department declined to comment to Forbes on the reported subpoenas, and Trump’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Crucial Quote

“If the litigation had stopped on Dec. 14, there would have been no fight to defend the election and no clear path to continue to raise millions of dollars,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said during a House January 6 hearing in June about the Save America PAC, describing the fundraising effort as “the Big Rip-Off.”

Key Background

The Justice Department is conducting a wide-ranging probe into the January 6 attack and the post-election period, which has more recently focused more heavily on Trump and his associates. The probe has already resulted in more than 900 people being charged for directly participating in the January 6 attack, but DOJ investigators have also broadened their inquiry to include the efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors are reportedly looking into the “fake electors” plot in which Republican officials in battleground states submitted false slates of electors to Congress claiming Trump won, as well as former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark’s alleged effort to stop Georgia from certifying President Joe Biden’s win by falsely claiming the DOJ had found evidence of fraud. According to multiple reports, investigators are also starting to look more into Trump himself, asking witnesses about conversations they’ve had with the ex-president. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and deputy Patrick Philbin have testified to the grand jury as part of the probe, along with former Vice President Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff Marc Short and Pence’s counsel Greg Jacob, and Trump administration attorney Eric Herschmann has also been subpoenaed.

Tangent

The inquiry into Trump’s Save America PAC and his post-election efforts is one of several legal issues the ex-president is now facing, along with a separate federal investigation into his handling of White House documents that he brought back to his Mar-A-Lago estate and ongoing civil and criminal investigations in New York into the Trump Organization. Trump’s social network Truth Social and the merger between Trump Media & Technology Group and special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition has also come under scrutiny from a federal grand jury, the New York Times reports.

Further Reading

Federal grand jury probing Trump PAC’s formation, fundraising efforts: Sources (ABC News)

The Jan. 6 panel says the Trump campaign misled donors using election lies (NPR)

$60,000 To Kimberly Guilfoyle: Jan. 6 Lawmaker Claims Trump’s Family Benefitted From Voter Fraud Fundraising (Forbes)

Trump Moved More Than $1 Million From His Political Groups To His Private Business After Losing The Election (Forbes)

What the Trump family’s new political committees can and can’t do (Washington Post)