Donors were told they could “sponsor a Holocaust survivor,” or more with a $75,000 “King David” package at the mysterious gathering. But it’s not clear if it ever happened.
A pro-Trump super PAC that has enjoyed the outspoken backing of some of the biggest names in the president’s orbit hit up its supporters for donations as high as $75,000 to attend an event in New York last month. But it’s not clear that the event ever took place. And the group still won’t give election regulators any information about its finances.
The American Pro-Israel PAC (APIP) website billed the Dec. 11, 2019, event in New York as a “Founding Donors Special Event.” For $249, its website said, donors could “sponsor a Holocaust survivor” and get access to a VIP reception. For $75,000, its “King David Sponsorship” package, donors would get 10 tickets and a full-page ad in event literature. The website advertised nine other donation packages with names like “King Solomon” and “Pool of Siloam.”
The donation page led with a YouTube video promoting the event, as noted by The Palm Beach Post in a report in September. The minute-long video includes APIP’s logo and a series of flashy video clips behind text promising prospective attendees that they will be “dazzled.” But it lacks any actual details about the event beyond its date.
And that’s all the information we have about this mysterious gathering. There’s no publicly available evidence that it ever actually happened. Jason Sullivan, APIP’s founder, did not respond to questions about it. And unlike previous events put on by the group, no one shared any photos or videos or recaps of the event on social media.
It’s also not clear just how much money Sullivan and his organization raised for the event, such as it was. That’s because APIP steadfastly refuses to provide legally required documentation to the Federal Election Commission.
The purported gathering in New York would have been just the latest in a string of APIP events that began with a Mar-a-Lago kickoff party in November 2018. President Donald Trump himself briefly stopped by that event to thank speakers and attendees, who included Paula White, the pastor leading the president’s new Evangelicals for Trump initiative, and Mike Lindell, the celebrity founder of the company MyPillow.
Other prominent figures in Trump’s orbit and the broader conservative movement have attended and promoted APIP events since then. In doing so, they’ve helped support a group that is flagrantly disregarding some of the most basic requirements of federal campaign-finance laws, and apparently hitting up supporters for five-figure donations to put on events that may or may not actually take place.
Jason Sullivan is one of the many figures in Trumpworld who found himself wrapped up in the various investigative tentacles of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. Sullivan was an associate of Roger Stone, who is awaiting sentencing after being convicted on seven federal criminal charges related to the Mueller investigation.
Stone recruited Sullivan in 2016 to help run a pro-Trump political group called the Committee to Restore American Greatness. Two years later, Sullivan found himself on the receiving end of a subpoena from the special counsel’s office, which was investigating Stone’s contacts with WikiLeaks and his foreknowledge of the group’s release of Democratic Party emails obtained by Russian government-backed hackers.
“Sullivan willingly testified in front of a Federal Grand Jury, regarding his technology (which was of interest) and declared there was NO Russian collusion involved in any way, to his knowledge,” APIP declares on its website. “Sullivan was ultimately cleared as the Mueller investigation wrapped up and no further indictments were issued.”
Since then, Sullivan appears to have bought into the QAnon movement, the sprawling, nonsensical compendium of conspiracy theories popular among fringe segments of the pro-Trump right.
Sullivan officially formed the American Pro-Israel PAC in September 2018. The group “works to elect candidates who embrace the Judeo-Christian worldview and support the Nation of Israel as America's closest ally,” its website states. But there’s little evidence of the group working to elect anyone at all.
Shortly after its launch, APIP held an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. Attendees paid as much as $100,000 to get in. White and Lindell both attended, along with lesser known evangelical pastors, one of whom literally passed on a “message from God,” assuring attendees that He had declared the D.C. swamp to be officially drained.
By December 2018, APIP had raised more than $237,000. It paid out nearly $40,000 to Mar-a-Lago for the event, and wrote Sullivan a few checks totaling more than $12,000.
The glitzy events continued into early 2019. In March, APIP held “a night of unity and peace” at Mar-a-Lago, once again featuring Pastor White. The invitation also billed the attendance of Meir Klifi-Amir, a retired Israel Defense Forces general. And, of course, Sullivan, promoted on the invitation as a “Twitter Wizard,” was featured prominently.
The invitation was shared on social media by Candace Rojas, a Republican public-relations executive based in South Florida. Reached by phone on Thursday, Rojas said, “I don’t want to get involved,” and abruptly hung up.
Two months after that event, APIP once again gathered at Temple Beth El in West Palm Beach, across the Intracoastal Waterway from Mar-a-Lago, for yet another event. This one featured popular conservative radio host Dennis Praeger and Darrell Scott, a Cleveland-area pastor and prominent Trump supporter.
Attendees got into that event for a relative pittance compared to APIP’s prior gatherings. The invite asked for just $199.
In all, APIP has hosted three fundraising events that we know have actually taken place. And then there’s the event in New York, for which the group at least asked for some sizable donations. Despite that extensive fundraising, we still have no clue how much money it’s taken in, how much has gone to Sullivan and others, how much cash it has on hand, and what it’s been up to in terms of political activity.
That’s because APIP steadfastly refuses to give the FEC any information on its finances. The last report it filed with the commission came nearly a year ago and disclosed the income and expenditures related to its Mar-a-Lago event in late 2018.
In August, the FEC sent APIP a sternly worded letter noting its failure to file a mid-year disclosure report. APIP still has not done so. Sullivan did not respond to questions about whether it ever would. Unless or until it does, the public may never know just how much the group was able to siphon from its donors—with assists from some of the most prominent Trump supporters in the country, and even the president himself.
