Dark money machine: Biden, top Dems benefit from millions in secretive election cash

Entities affiliated with President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have raked in millions of dollars in secretive donations for the 2024 elections, even as those Democrat party leaders regularly assail fundraising with so-called dark money.

Top Democrats benefit from the anonymous donor cash as they have consistently criticized dark money in politics: There’s “too much money that flows in the shadows to influence our elections” and it “erodes public trust,” President Biden previously declared.

Despite his comments, the primary super PAC backing the president’s re-election efforts has received millions in dark money donations, with far more likely on the way. 

The Future Forward PAC, which Biden’s team designated as the primary outside group to raise money for his 2024 candidacy, received an $8 million contribution in late December from its affiliated nonprofit arm, Future Forward USA Action, filings show.

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The Future Forward PAC, the main outside group backing Biden’s candidacy, has been awash in dark money in recent years. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/File)

Future Forward USA Action does not disclose the identities of its donors, meaning the origin of the millions that ultimately benefit Biden remains unknown. The group told Politico earlier this year that it raised $208 million between its nonprofit and super PAC last year.

Records show that the PAC raised $25 million in donations during this time, signaling that the nonprofit had most of the money. As the election draws closer, Biden will likely benefit from far more anonymous cash transferred from the nonprofit to the PAC. 

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 further 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.

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The Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC has received millions in dark money. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/File)

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. 

The Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC, which works to elect and keep Democrat politicians in Congress’s upper chamber, has also long passed secretive money between its affiliated nonprofit and the PAC that boosts candidates nationwide.

Majority Forward, a dark money nonprofit with links to the Senate Majority PAC, has passed at least $15.75 million to the PAC for the 2024 elections. However, those figures only cover up to January, so more could have been transferred between the nonprofit and PAC since then.

Schumer has publicly assailed dark money and pushed legislation against it. He also demanded that right-leaning judicial groups identify their donors even as Democrats benefit from such groups.

House Majority PAC, which is affiliated with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, has also received millions in dark money this election cycle. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images/File)

Schumer championed the For the People Act, which contains provisions requiring political nonprofits to disclose donors who give more than $10,000. The bill also calls for nonprofits to file disclosure reports to the Federal Election Commission when they push more than $10,000 into election-related activities. 

Meanwhile, the Jeffries-affiliated House Majority PAC, which boosts Democrat candidates in Congress’s lower chamber, also receives millions in dark money.

Federal filings show that the PAC’s affiliated dark money nonprofit, House Majority Forward, passed $8 million over to the House Majority PAC this cycle up to the end of December. Like the other groups, it might have received more after that period for this year’s elections.

“Liberals decry dark money, unless it’s their own,” Americans for Public Trust Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News Digital.

Republicans, likewise, benefit from millions in dark money pumped into election activity, though the party does not publicly condemn the practice as Democrats do. The Senate Leadership Fund, for example, has received at least $5.18 million from One Nation, a dark money nonprofit, for the 2024 elections.

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Democrats have also benefited from far more dark money than Republicans in recent election cycles.

The New York Times previously reported that 15 of the most active Democrat dark money nonprofits spent $1.5 billion during the 2020 elections. By comparison, 15 of the most active Republican nonprofits spent around $900 million during this time.

Neither Biden’s campaign, nor Future Forward nor the Senate and House Majority PACs responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.