A portion of the donations to the newly formed “Trump 47” joint fundraising committee will filter to the Save America political action committee, which is often used to cover former President Donald Trump’s legal bills, according to a donation contribution form obtained by NBC News.
The move marks a departure from typical campaign donation trajectories. Ahead of the general election, donations to joint fundraising committees traditionally filter to the candidate’s campaign, the national party and state parties, not a leadership PAC.
But this year, donations to Trump 47 will first be disbursed to the Trump campaign, followed by the Save America PAC once a donor hits the maximum campaign contribution limit.
After an individual’s donations hit the maximum limit to both the campaign and the Save America PAC, the Republican National Committee will receive funds, followed by individual state Republican parties.
The maximum annual contribution to a leadership PAC is $5,000. The contribution limit means that only a fraction of major donors’ contributions would go toward legal bills, while small-contribution donors will see a higher percentage of their money going to legal bills, rather than being funneled to the RNC.
“Save America also covers a very active and robust post-Presidency office and other various expenses not related to fighting the illegal witch-hunts perpetrated by Crooked Joe Biden,” said Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung in a statement.
“The Trump campaign, the RNC, and state GOP parties ultimately receive the overwhelming majority of funds raised through the Trump 47 Committee,” he added, noting that just a small fraction of an individual donor’s overall maximum contribution goes to Save America.
Trump faces four criminal indictments for allegations that he conspired to defraud the U.S. by subverting the results of the 2020 presidential election, mishandled classified documents and falsified business records related to hush money payments. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all cases.
The former president also faces a slew of civil legal issues. He and his company were hit with a $464 million fraud judgment in New York, and Trump was ordered to pay $83 million in defamation damages to E. Jean Carroll for defamation. Trump has had difficulty raising funds to post a bond for the civil fraud penalty against him, with his attorneys arguing securing a bond for nearly a half a billion dollars by next week’s deadline was “a practical impossibility.”
