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 is a departure from typical campaign donation trajectories. Ahead of the general election, donations to joint fundraising committees traditionally filter to candidates’ campaigns, the national party and state parties, not leadership PACs.
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 limit for 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 a higher percentage of small-contribution donors’ money would go to legal bills, rather than be 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," Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said 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.
He 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 that securing a bond for nearly half a billion dollars by next week’s deadline is “a practical impossibility.”
