“Might have to give those millions back”: Legal experts say Jack Smith could “seize” Trump PAC cash

Special counsel Jack Smith appears to be far from wrapping up his investigation into former President Donald Trump’s post-2020 election scheme and his team has held at least one interview this week related to the finances of the ex-president’s political action committee, according to Politico.

Smith’s team on Monday interviewed Bernie Keris, a former New York City police commissioner and longtime associate of former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, according to the report. Prosecutors questioned Kerik in a “closed-door” interview about how the Save America PAC raked in huge amounts of cash between Election Day and the deadly Capitol insurrection. Kerik’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, told Politico that prosecutors were shining a “laser focus from Election Day to Jan. 6.”

Parlatore also shared that prosecutors asked several questions about Boris Epshteyn, an attorney who currently works on Trump’s campaign and as his in-house counsel, as well as Justin Clark, who was the deputy campaign manager of Trump’s re-election. 

Though Trump’s election subversion indictment did not include any financial crimes, Politico reported that the interview with Kerik demonstrates, at the very least, “the clearest indication of Smith’s focus” since the special counsel handed down the indictment against Trump. 

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that Save America’s funds were dwindling after Trump was forced to pay out numerous lawyers amid his seemingly-unending indictments and court cases — the PAC reported less than $4 million in its account after starting last year with more than $105 million. The floundering PAC was even forced to request a whopping $60 million dollar refund from pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., with the New York Times reporting that the refund was issued to Save America in installments seemingly timed to Trump’s various legal woes. 

“I don’t know that calling it a refund changes the fundamental illegality,” Adav Noti, a former lawyer for the Federal Election Commission’s litigation division and leader of watchdog group, Campaign Legal Center, told The Times. As the report noted, “the pro-Trump super PAC and Trump-controlled PAC must be independent entities and are barred from any coordination on strategy.”

“So for the super PAC and the Trump PAC to be sending tens of millions of dollars back and forth depending upon who needs the money more strongly suggests unlawful financial coordination,” Noti added.

The New York Times also noted that, in the months after Trump left the White House, allies of Giuliani encouraged him to use Save America’s money to pay Giuliani for legal services following the election. Various legal experts have identified the former New York City mayor as one of six co-conspirators listed in Smith’s indictment of Trump. 

“This isn’t over yet,” tweeted Frank Figliuzzi, a former senior FBI official. “When you raise millions based on a fraudulent claim, you’ve committed a crime. And, you just might have to give those millions back.”

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Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who served on special counsel Bob Mueller’s team, wrote that he is watching “for a criminal case about the Trump PAC and forfeiture allegations/seizures.” 

He added that the case would “not need to go all the way up to Trump before Jack charges folks and seizes assets.”

NPR reported last year that, per the House Jan. 6 committee’s findings, “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.” 

“Instead, the money went to the Save America political action committee.”