Pinal County Democrats Chair Lisa Sanor is asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate a political action committee tied to Republican Senatorial hopeful Kari Lake, according to a copy of the complaint obtained exclusively by the Arizona Mirror.
The Save Arizona Fund was incorporated as a domestic nonprofit in Arizona in December 2022, shortly following Lake’s election loss to now-Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. It describes itself as an “Arizona-based non-profit social welfare organization operating as exempt from federal taxes” as a 501(c)(4) organization.
The complaint filed this week by Sanor claims that the organization has not pursued those goals but “instead operates primarily for the private benefit of Kari Lake” and requested that if the IRS finds they have not been “operating for the promotion of social welfare” that their tax-exempt status be revoked.
“Kari Lake only cares about boosting herself – but she isn’t above the rules,” Sanor said in a statement to the Mirror. “Arizonans deserve to know if she is illegally using this shady organization to pay her own lawyers to push conspiracy theories about past elections.”
The Lake campaign and Save Arizona Fund did not respond to a request for comment about the letter.
The letter claims that Lake has been using Save Arizona Fund as a way to fund her lawsuits that sought to overturn the results of the 2022 election, in which she lost. Lake has lost her lawsuits and her attorneys have faced disciplinary actions due to the allegations contained in them.
On Dec. 9, 2022, four days after Save Arizona Fund was created, Lake filed a lawsuit challenging the results of the 2022 election. That lawsuit would be dismissed just a few weeks later.
The following month, Save Arizona Fund would prominently feature Lake and her lawsuit, even posting a copy of it on its website. Lake also promoted the website online, posting to X, formerly Twitter, in December 2022 asking followers to “DONATE TO MY LEGAL FUND.”
Now the website does not feature Lake or any mention of her lawsuits. However, when clicking the “donate” button, users are asked to send checks to an address that is listed as Lake’s Senate campaign office.
The letter to the IRS details many occasions in which Lake asked supporters to donate to help fund her legal expenses related to challenging election results.
In a space on X, in January 2023, Lake mentioned she had to pay her attorney $187,000 and asked people to donate.
“If you want to help, I just paid $187,000 bill to an attorney, and they’re worth every penny of it because they’re brave and they’re amazing,” Lake said. “I’m not begging for money because people have given, given, given. And if a prayer is what you can afford I’ll take the prayers. Our attorneys will take the prayers. If you can afford $10, our website is savearizonafund.com.”
The month prior, Lake had paid “Olsen Law PC” approximately $187,000 for “attorney fees,” according to campaign finance filings from her gubernatorial campaign. Kurt Olsen was one of Lake’s attorneys who is being investigated by the State Bar of Arizona.
Trump connections
Save Arizona Fund is also connected to key members of Lake and former President Donald Trump’s inner circle.
The fund’s statutory agent is Timothy La Sota, who was Lake’s campaign attorney during her gubernatorial campaign. He also represented Lake in the defamation case brought by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and in a public records lawsuit Lake filed.
La Sota did not respond to a request for comment.
The director and CEO of the fund is Caroline Wren, who currently is a senior advisor to Lake’s Senate bid. Wren also was formerly an advisor to Trump who helped organize the rally in Washington D.C. that directly preceded the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The letter also notes that the fund’s other director, Nicholas Moore, was reimbursed by the Lake Senate campaign over $120,000 for “travel/event/office supplies.”
Last July, Lake also announced plans that the fund would help create a ballot-chasing operation to help Republicans win in the 2024 elections.
The letter to the IRS says that tax-exempt organizations must operate “exclusively” for social welfare purposes and that there should be little “private benefit” to individuals or for-profit organizations. Sanor contends that the fund has not met those requirements and said that the IRS has brought action against similar situations.
“The facts and circumstances show that SAF operates primarily for the benefit of Ms. Lake, rather than the community as a whole,” the letter says, adding that the fund’s “primary purpose” does not appear to be the “promotion of social welfare.”
Sanor also wrote to the IRS saying that the fund may have been used to gather data on voters, since the website asked individuals to provide phone numbers which the website said were for “autodialed marketing messages.”
“The fact that individuals were consenting to receive personal marketing messages from Ms. Lake strongly suggests that the consent was not used for any SAF-related program,” the letter says. “Thus, SAF provided Ms. Lake with valuable data by orchestrating her ability to send text messages to potential political supporters.”
Sanor’s letter asks that the IRS investigate these claims and take “immediate action” and determine whether the fund’s 501(c)(4) status should be revoked.
“Publicly available information strongly suggests SAF was formed, and has operated, to fund Ms. Lake’s campaign lawsuits, raise her public profile, promote her campaign issues, and provide her with valuable contact data,” the letter says. “The facts and circumstances indicate that SAF’s activity benefits Ms. Lake, and not the community as a whole.”
This story was first published by Arizona Mirror, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
