Biden’s top super PAC receives millions in new dark money funds, filings show
Fox News
The primary super PAC backing President Biden’s re-election efforts has received millions in new dark money donations, filings show.
The Future Forward PAC, which Biden’s team elevated as the leading external group to raise money for his 2024 candidacy, received an $8 million contribution from its affiliated Future Forward USA Action nonprofit arm on Dec. 29, according to its new filings to the Federal Election Commission.
Future Forward USA Action does not disclose the identities of its donors, meaning the origination of the millions that will ultimately benefit Biden is unknown. Earlier this month, Future Forward told Politico they raised $200 million between its nonprofit and super PAC last year.
The super PAC’s new filings reveal it raised around $25 million in contributions in 2023, signaling most of this money is likely parked in its dark money nonprofit, positioning Biden to benefit from far more funds from unidentified sources.
“The same Joe Biden who once said ‘dark money erodes public trust’ is now being propelled by millions in dark money,” Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, previously told Fox News Digital. “It’s this type of blatant political hypocrisy that the American people can’t stand.”
The new filings show that the latest transfer from Future Forward’s nonprofit to its super PAC accounted for roughly 30 percent of the $25 million the pro-Biden PAC raised during the second half of last year. Other recent donors include hedge fund billionaire James Simons ($2.5 million), Newsweb Corporation chairman Fred Eychaner ($2 million) and film producer and former Walt Disney Studios chair Jeffrey Katzenberg ($1 million).
Future Forward has long passed dark money from its nonprofit to its super PAC. Fox News Digital previously reported that a considerable amount of Future Forward’s nonprofit cash itself was passed through a web of groups overseen by the Arabella Advisors consulting firm, which manages a billion-dollar dark money network. These actions add another layer of secrecy that additionally conceals its original supporters.
One of the dark money groups, the Impetus Fund, had escaped detection for some time. The Impetus Fund sent most of its undisclosed cash – $55.8 million – to Future Forward USA Action during the last presidential cycle, according to tax documents.
Meanwhile, Future Forward USA Action transferred $77 million to the Future Forward PAC between the 2020 election and June 2023, making up more than 40% of the $181 million the PAC raised during that span.
After spending $141 million on independent expenditures in the last presidential cycle, senior White House adviser Anita Dunn said Future Forward “really earned its place as the pre-eminent super PAC” to back Biden this time.
“In 2020, when they really appeared from nowhere and started placing advertising, the Biden campaign was impressed by the effectiveness of the ads and the overall rigorous testing that had clearly gone into the entire project,” Dunn previously told The New York Times.
Future Forward did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.