Apolitical action committee (PAC) supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was dealt a blow by Wisconsin’s bipartisan ethics commission, which recommended it face criminal charges for allegedly trying to circumvent campaign finance laws to support a challenger to an anti-Trump Republican.
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The commission on Friday released its report into allegations that the Save America PAC joined efforts to illegally donate tens of thousands of dollars to the campaign of Adam Steen, who challenged Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in 2022.
The relationship between Trump and Vos, a Republican, soured after he said there was no path to decertify the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump claimed was stolen via widespread voter fraud despite a lack of substantial evidence.
The bipartisan ethics commission is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Commission chair Pat Strachota, a Republican who formerly served as assembly speaker, signed off on the order recommending charges against the PAC. Two-thirds of the commission is required for any action, meaning at least one Republican member agreed to recommend the charges.
The commission found “probable cause” that the PAC engaged in efforts to illegally steer at least $40,000 to Steen’s campaign and referred charges to local district attorneys, according to orders reviewed by Newsweek on Friday.
Although individuals can only donate up to $1,000 to political candidates in Wisconsin, political parties are able to give unlimited donations. In an alleged scheme to go around that law, individuals seeking to provide more than $1,000 to Steen’s campaign would donate to local county parties, mark that the donation was intended for Steen, and the parties would then provide those funds to Steen, according to the commission’s findings
The Save America PAC allegedly provided $5,000 contributions to three different local Republican county parties intended for Steen’s campaign on August 31 and September 1, 2022, according to the documents.
“Based on the discussions prior to the donations being made, it appears that the Respondent directed the county parties to use the money, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of Friends of Adam Steen. The county parties did so either through direct contributions to Friends of Adam Steen or through disbursements to vendors. This is a violation of WIS. STAT. § 11.1202(2),” the documents read.
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The commission did not name any specific individual who should face charges, only writing the PAC’s “agents” allegedly violated campaign finance laws.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment via email.
Despite efforts to unseat Vos, he ended up winning the 2022 Republican primary by 260 votes, delivering a loss for Trump in the crucial battleground state. He easily secured victory in the general election, beating back a Democratic challenger and write-in effort from Steen.
In a lengthy statement endorsing Steen, Trump knocked Vos as a “RINO” who “consistently blocked efforts at conducting a full cyber forensic audit of the 2020 election.”
“He does not come close to supporting America First policies, and I do not come close to supporting him,” Trump wrote.
Vos joined the former president in voicing concerns about the validity of the 2020 election but ultimately declined to decertify the results, sparking outrage from some Trump-aligned conservatives. Wisconsin was among the most competitive states in 2020, with Biden winning by a mere 0.63 percentage points, taking 49.45 percent of the vote to Trump’s 48.82 percent.
