A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., is examining the formation of and spending by a fund-raising operation created by President Trump after his loss in the 2020 election as he was soliciting millions of dollars by baselessly asserting that the results had been marred by widespread voting fraud. According to subpoenas described to The New York Times, the Justice Department is probing the inner workings of Save America PAC, Trump’s main fund-raising vehicle after the election. Similar subpoenas were sent on Wednesday to junior and midlevel aides who worked in the White House and for Trump’s presidential campaign.
The Times called the fact that federal prosecutors are now seeking information about the fund-raising operation is a significant new turn in an already significant criminal investigation into the roles that Trump and his allies played in trying to overturn the election, an array of efforts that culminated with the mob attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The new subpoenas related to Trump’s fund-raising vehicle did not make clear what possible crime or crimes the Justice Department might be investigating. The House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol has also been examining Trump’s fund-raising operation, and has raised questions about whether it had duped donors through misleading appeals about election fraud. The DOJ Jan. 6 inquiry has so far largely centered on a plan to create slates of electors pledged to him in seven key swing states that Joseph R. Biden Jr. had won. The new subpoenas appeared to have been issued by a different grand jury from the one that has been gathering evidence about the so-called fake electors plan.