Millions of dollars in new dark money funds have been funneled into Democrat President Joe Biden’s primary super political action committee (PAC), financial filings have revealed.
The Future Forward PAC received an $8 million contribution from its affiliated Future Forward USA Action nonprofit arm on December 29.
The funneling of cash was revealed in the PAC’s new filings to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Biden’s team elevated the PAC as the leading external group to raise money for his 2024 candidacy.
Future Forward USA Action does not disclose the identities of its donors.
The secrecy means the origination of the millions that will ultimately benefit Biden is unknown.
Earlier this month, Future Forward told Politico that the group 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.
This signals that most of this money is likely parked in its dark money nonprofit.
The flow of dark money positions Biden to benefit from far more funds from unidentified sources.
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, blasted Biden of his double-standard regarding dark money.
“The same Joe Biden who once said ‘dark money erodes public trust’ is now being propelled by millions in dark money,” said Sutherland.
“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.
A considerable amount of Future Forward’s nonprofit cash itself was passed through a web of groups overseen by the Arabella Advisors consulting firm.
Arabella 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.
According to tax documents, the Impetus Fund sent most of its undisclosed cash – $55.8 million – to Future Forward USA Action during the last presidential cycle.
Meanwhile, Future Forward USA Action transferred $77 million to the Future Forward PAC between the 2020 election and June 2023.
This makes 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.
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