A super PAC supporting President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election may have illegally failed to disclose the identities of donors in connection to a large cash transfer from its affiliated dark money group, according to a new report.
Future Forward, which senior Biden adviser Anita Dunn recently dubbed "the preeminent super PAC supporting the Biden-Harris agenda and 2024 efforts," notably spent over $130 million on pro-Biden ads in 2020 against then-President Donald Trump and has already raised at least $50 million this year. The committee appears to have skirted federal law by not revealing contributors behind almost $3.4 million it pocketed in 2021 from Future Forward USA Action, a dark money advocacy organization that has steered the super PAC tens of millions of dollars, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
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"Future Forward USA Action admitted to making over $3 million in earmarked political contributions, where they apparently obscured the true super PAC donor's identity by routing the money through the nonprofit," Charlie Spies, an election attorney who has worked for the Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association, told the outlet — adding that the Justice Department "has sent people to prison for this sort of activity," and Federal Election Commission has fined conservative groups "accused of less blatant earmarking."
After helping to boost Biden to victory in 2020, the Future Forward super PAC is reportedly primed to be a key vehicle for billionaires and other wealthy moguls to back the president in 2024. Biden has a roughly 41% average approval rating, while Republican presidential primary averages show Trump with 54% support and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) at 15%, according to RealClearPolitics.
The FEC has in the past taken action against right-leaning entities for hiding contribution sources, including the American Conservative Union, which faced a $350,000 fine in 2017 for acting as a "pass through" for a $1.71 million super PAC donation. The DOJ, for instance, handed down a 14-month prison sentence in 2022 to Joseph Fuentes-Fernandez, president of a super PAC in Puerto Rico, for "scheming to lie to the FEC about the true identities of donors," according to a press release.
Allegations that the pro-Biden super PAC could have run afoul of disclosure rules come after the president in 2022 dubbed dark money a "serious problem facing our democracy" upon embracing Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's (D-RI) DISCLOSE Act — which hasn't passed and would require 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups and super PACs to make public the names of $10,000 or more election cycle donors.
In mid-July, Future Forward told the New York Times that it hauled in $50 million so far in 2023. But the entity's FEC filing, released later that month, showed that the PAC raised only $67,000 — providing an indication that the nonprofit group took in large sums. By the time the nonprofit group has to file its 2023 financial disclosures with the IRS, the 2024 election will be over.
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"It looks like Biden's preferred Future Forward super PAC is violating the FEC's donor disclosure laws by laundering dark money donations through its related Future Forward USA Action nonprofit," Paul Kamenar, counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog, told the Washington Free Beacon.
Future Forward USA Action did not return a request for comment.