Much as investigators did during the Watergate scandal that wound up bringing down the presidency of Richard Nixon, it appears that Special Counsel Jack Smith is following the money trail and has his eye on a political action committee former president Donald Trump has been using to fund his legal defense.
According to a report from Betsy Woodroof Swan and Kyle Cheney of Politico, a grand jury empaneled by the special counsel met recently in a Washington, D.C. federal courthouse and has been looking closely at the Trump-aligned Save America PAC and other fundraising efforts the disgraced ex-president is using to pay for his 2024 bid for the White House and mounting legal bills.
In a closed-door interview on Monday with Bernard Kerik, investigators asked multiple questions about the Save America PAC’s enormous fundraising haul in the weeks between Election Day and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to Kerik’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, who was present for the interview and shared details with POLITICO.
“It’s a laser focus from Election Day to Jan. 6,” Parlatore said.
The special counsel has long been thought to be scrutinizing whether Trump or his PAC violated federal laws by raising money off claims of voter fraud they knew were false. Last week’s indictment of Trump, on charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, did not include any allegations of financial crime.
That led several legal experts to suggest that Smith may have his sights set on the hundreds of millions Save America PAC has collected since the 2020 election and be on the verge of seizing them as ill-gotten gains from a wire fraud scheme.
NBC News national security analyst Frank Figliuzzi noted on Twitter, “This isn’t over yet. When you raise millions based on a fraudulent claim, you’ve committed a crime. And, you just might have to give those millions back.”
Andrew Weissmann, who worked as general counsel for the FBI and is now an MSNBC legal analyst, suggested what to expect next from Smith and the Justice Department:
“Keep your eyes peeled for a criminal case about the Trump PAC and forfeiture allegations/seizures. Case wd [would] not need to go all the way up to Trump before Jack charges folks and seizes assets.”
Law professor Jennifer Taub was even more succinct: “Wire fraud? Delicious.”
How much money are we talking about that Trump might suddenly see disappear from the accounts that fund his campaign and pay his attorneys? According to NPR, as much as $250 million:
“The Trump campaign took $250 million in donations from supporters that it said would go to an election defense fund to pay for legal fees to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. But the fund was never actually created, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., one of the committee members, said … in the panel’s second public hearing.”
Follow the money and you find the crimes.
