“You are knowingly defrauding every person who gives you his or her email address," reads a message from the Trump campaign. | Getty Trump campaign demands 'dinner with Trump’ super PAC cease and desist

Donald Trump’s campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter on Monday to a super PAC unaffiliated with the campaign that has lured more than $1 million in donations by offering the Republican nominee’s supporters a chance at dinner with Trump, accusing the group of “defrauding” its donors.

Trump’s campaign also sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission, the nation’s election watchdog agency, disavowing the super PAC on the same day POLITICO revealed that the group had raised more than $1 million from 20,000 donors in less than three months.


“You are knowingly defrauding every person who gives you his or her email address or who makes a donation through your unauthorized website,” reads a letter from Trump’s campaign attorney, Donald McGahn, to the super PAC.

POLITICO spoke with 11 of the 156 donors named so far in federal filings — those who gave at least $200 in June — and each of them said they had believed they were giving to Trump’s campaign, not an unconnected super PAC.

Ian Hawes, the creator of American Horizons PAC, which operates the dinnerwithtrump.org website, said on Sunday “unfortunately, that’s simply a matter of pure chance.”

Donors disagreed. “I am disgusted that you find no shame in being a scammer,” Ann L'Altrella wrote as she requested a $265 refund on Monday. “What you did is criminal.” Those requesting refunds can email [email protected]

In its letter to the FEC, Trump’s campaign said it was “concerned about the likelihood of confusion among the public” because of the super PAC’s use of “Trump's name, image, likeness, or slogans in connection with soliciting contributions and conducting other activities.”

Trump’s campaign has been running its own dinner promotion at donaldjtrump.com, his official website.

“Your organization is using these materials in service of a promise you fully know is false — that visitors who submit their names or make donations thereby earn the chance ‘to have dinner with Donald Trump,’” the letter to Hawes reads. “You cannot possibly provide the prize that your website purports to offer.”

A senior Trump campaign official said the campaign could pursue other legal actions if the PAC continues operations. “If they don’t stop, they have to worry about various state laws concerning consumer fraud,” the official said.

Hawes, a 25-year-old who has never previously worked on a political campaign, has pushed back against accusations that his group intentionally deceived donors.

Following the story’s publication, several donors told POLITICO they have requested refunds. Hawes wrote back to one of them, saying, “We're absolutely not a scam.” He linked to a 300-word rebuttal on the PAC’s website attacking POLITICO.

“Like Mr. Trump, I’m not a political insider. My occupation is in digital marketing. After the primaries, I felt a calling (like hundreds of thousands of others) to help Mr. Trump’s campaign,” Hawes’ rebuttal said. “American Horizons is one of the largest pro-Trump political action committees this cycle. It’s no wonder Politico saw us as a threat.”

The letter was not posted to the website, dinnerwithtrump.org, where Hawes’ group has solicited email addresses — more than 410,000 as of Sunday — and donations but to americanhorizons.org. After the POLITICO story was published, the dinnerwithtrump.org website did add a new American Horizons logo at the top of its page.

While Hawes’ group is offering the chance to win “dinner” with Trump, the fine print of the contest shows that the super PAC is simply offering two tickets at “a Sponsor-selected fundraising evening event held with Donald Trump and other attendees.”

The Trump campaign’s letter accused the super PAC of “gathering data and money from people under knowingly false pretenses” by offering a chance at dinner.

Federal campaign records cover only the first three weeks of the American Horizons PAC’s operations in June, in which it spent more than $108,000 promoting its dinner contest on Facebook, and raised nearly $350,000.

The largest expenditure, $133,000, was to CartSoft LLC, a company Hawes founded and owns. Since its launch, the super PAC has reported $0 in independent expenditures on behalf of Trump.

Hawes did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump’s disavowal and letter.