Defending the Republic Inc. — Stop the Steal Fundraising Vehicle
Organization type: 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit (EIN 85-3930804); companion Super PAC (FEC C00771139) Principal: Sidney Powell, President and Trustee Incorporated: December 1, 2020 Registered address: 3831 Turtle Creek Blvd., Suite 5B, Dallas, TX 75219 Priority: P1 — Documented financial vehicle for election-fraud disinformation; federal grand jury scrutiny; state regulatory action; civil litigation alleging donor fraud; funded January 6 defendants
Role
Defending the Republic Inc. (DTR) is Sidney Powell’s primary fundraising vehicle, established immediately after the 2020 election as the financial engine for her “Kraken” election-fraud litigation campaign. Operating as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization — contributions are not tax-deductible — it solicited donations on the strength of Powell’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen through Dominion Voting Systems and foreign interference, claims Powell later admitted in her October 2023 Georgia guilty plea were part of a criminal conspiracy.
In its peak year (2021), DTR raised $16.4 million, accumulating approximately $9.2 million in net assets at year-end despite $8 million in expenses.
Over fiscal years 2020–2023, the organization raised a total of approximately $21.6 million. It reported $0 in compensation to Powell on every Form 990, even as civil litigation and deposition testimony revealed Powell expected her law firm to receive payment from DTR funds.
The organization faces an ongoing federal grand jury investigation (subpoena issued September 2021), a Florida regulatory fine for failure to register as a charity, and active defamation litigation in which Dominion Voting Systems alleges Powell “raided” DTR funds for her personal legal defense.
Background
Formation and Stated Purpose
DTR was incorporated in Texas on December 1, 2020 — six days after Powell’s fundraising website went live and began soliciting donations on November 25, 2020, creating an approximately one-week window during which donations were collected before the legal entity existed. The organization’s official IRS mission statement reads:
“To educate the public on what it means to be a republic and to take actions in courts across the country to protect election integrity and individual freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.”
Classified by the IRS as a 501(c)(4) civil liberties advocacy organization, donations to DTR are not tax-deductible. A companion entity — Defending the Republic PAC Inc. (FEC Committee ID: C00771139), also with Powell as treasurer — was registered as a Super PAC but showed minimal activity ($120,291 raised, $223,075 spent through 2024).
Leadership and Governance Issues
The organization’s founding was itself contested. The Guardian reported in December 2021 that a federal grand jury found Powell filed false incorporation papers listing attorney Lin Wood and a colleague named Castleberry as board members without their knowledge or consent — apparently to signal credibility to prospective donors.
Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, who briefly served as a director/chairman, resigned in April 2021 after Powell refused to allow an independent audit of the organization’s finances. In a recorded phone call with Lin Wood, Byrne alleged Powell was diverting donation revenue to pay for her personal legal defense.
Position in the Stop the Steal Ecosystem
DTR was one of several overlapping fundraising vehicles that monetized election-fraud claims in the aftermath of the 2020 election. The broader landscape included:
- Save America PAC (Trump’s principal post-election fundraising vehicle; raised more than $102 million in 2020–2021)
- Ali Alexander’s Stop the Steal LLC (Alabama-registered; organized the January 6 rally)
- True the Vote (election integrity nonprofit with documented Texas AG ties)
- Giuliani legal defense funds (informal solicitations through One America News and allied media)
- Look Ahead America (Matt Braynard’s voter-data-focused nonprofit)
DTR was unique among these vehicles in pairing a named attorney with a specific litigation brand (“Kraken”) and presenting donations explicitly as legal defense investments — creating a transactional framing that implied donor funds would directly pursue the claims Powell was making publicly.
DTR’s peak 2021 fundraising of $16.4 million was driven almost entirely by this narrative. When Powell pleaded guilty in October 2023, acknowledging the conduct was criminal, revenue collapsed: 2022 contributions fell to $938,139 and 2023 contributions to $1,192,541.
Documented Actions
1. Pre-Incorporation Donation Solicitation (November 25 – December 1, 2020)
Evidence: Powell’s fundraising website went live on November 25, 2020 — six days before DTR was formally incorporated on December 1, 2020. Donations collected during this window were not directed to any legal entity but rather into bank accounts controlled by Powell personally.
DTR’s own attorney, Brandon Johnson, testified in deposition that he does not “know where [donations made during that period] went, but they did not go to Defending the Republic.” Dominion Voting Systems noted in court filings that these pre-incorporation donations were “necessarily commingled in bank accounts controlled by Sidney Powell.”
The magnitude of funds raised in this window is not publicly established from available records, though the organization reported approximately $3.6 million in total fiscal year 2020 contributions (fiscal year ended November 2020, suggesting most 2020 donations would appear in fiscal year 2021 data).
Source: Dominion court filings, US Dominion Inc. v. Powell, No. 1:21-cv-00040 (D.D.C.); Brandon Johnson deposition testimony as reported by Seattle Times and Denver Post, 2022.
Pattern: Financial commingling preceding formal legal entity formation
2. Peak Fundraising Campaign on Election-Fraud Claims ($16.4M in 2021)
Evidence: DTR raised $16,390,340 in contributions in fiscal year 2021 (ending November 2021), making it one of the largest single-year fundraising operations in the Stop the Steal ecosystem outside Trump’s Save America PAC.
The organization’s fundraising appeals drew directly on Powell’s “Kraken” claims — that Dominion Voting Systems was a Venezuelan-government-controlled vote-flipping operation, that Hugo Chavez (deceased 2013) had engineered it, and that foreign governments had stolen the 2020 election.
All courts that reviewed these claims dismissed them, and multiple courts imposed sanctions on Powell and co-counsel for filing frivolous pleadings. In October 2023, Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud in Georgia, acknowledging the conduct underlying these claims was criminal.
Donors who gave to DTR based on Powell’s representations about election fraud were giving money to someone who has since admitted to criminal conduct in connection with those claims.
Source: IRS Form 990, Defending the Republic Inc., FY2021 (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, EIN 85-3930804); State v. Trump et al., Fulton County Superior Court, Case No. 23SC188947, Powell plea allocution, Oct. 19, 2023.
Pattern: Fundraising on claims subsequently admitted to be part of a criminal conspiracy
3. Alleged Diversion of Donor Funds to Powell’s Personal Legal Defense
Evidence: DTR’s Form 990 filings for 2020–2023 report $0 in compensation to Sidney Powell. However, multiple documented sources raise serious questions about whether Powell’s personal legal defense costs — primarily stemming from Dominion and Smartmatic defamation suits — were paid from DTR funds:
- Dominion’s court filing (May 5, 2022): “Powell treated the entity’s funds as her personal funds, redirecting them to the law firm she controls and dominates and raiding them to pay for her personal legal defense.”
- Powell’s own deposition testimony (Coomer v. Powell, February 2021): When asked whether her law firm would receive payment from DTR donations, Powell replied: “I certainly hope we will.” Asked how she planned to be compensated, she stated: “I make sure everybody else gets paid for what they have done, and then if there’s any left, I have that as my compensation.”
- Patrick Byrne’s account (April 2021): In a recorded conversation with Lin Wood, Byrne stated Powell claimed she had received “$15 million, then she used the number $12.5 million” and refused to answer questions about it or allow oversight.
- Washington Post investigation (October 14, 2022): Documented an $80,000 rent payment to “524 Old Towne” as a notable expenditure in the tax filings.
The gap between 2021 revenue ($16.4M) and documented expenses ($8M) — leaving $9.2M in year-end assets — raises unresolved questions the grand jury investigation was designed to answer.
Source: Dominion court filings, US Dominion Inc. v. Powell, No. 1:21-cv-00040 (D.D.C.); Powell deposition, Coomer v. Powell, February 2021; Washington Post, “How Sidney Powell raised millions on false election claims,” Oct. 14, 2022; Patrick Byrne recorded conversation with Lin Wood, reported by multiple outlets.
Pattern: Alleged personal enrichment through charitable vehicle
4. Funding of January 6 Defendants, Including Oath Keepers Leader
Evidence: BuzzFeed News reporting by Ken Bensinger documented that DTR funds were used to pay for the legal defense of January 6 Capitol riot defendants, including Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers leader subsequently convicted of seditious conspiracy. Funds were also directed through attorney Jonathon Moseley to represent Kelly Meggs, another Oath Keepers member convicted in the January 6 prosecution.
This use of election-integrity donor funds to finance the legal defense of convicted seditious conspirators was not disclosed in DTR’s public fundraising appeals, which framed donations as supporting election-integrity litigation.
Source: BuzzFeed News, Ken Bensinger reporting on DTR expenditures; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, FY2021 Form 990.
Pattern: Donor funds used for purposes not disclosed in public fundraising appeals
5. Florida Regulatory Action for Deceptive Charitable Solicitation (2021)
Evidence: Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, under Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, filed an administrative complaint against DTR in 2021 alleging failure to register for charitable solicitations in Florida and obtaining contributions “by means of deception, false pretense, misrepresentation, or false promise.” The department imposed a $10,000 fine. DTR maintained a claimed Florida registration number (CH65706) on its website, though the complaint alleged the registration was not properly in place at the time of solicitation.
Source: Sun-Sentinel, “Nikki Fried hits former Trump lawyer’s charity for deceptive claims,” June 18, 2021; Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services administrative records.
Pattern: State regulatory violation for charitable solicitation practices
6. Federal Grand Jury Investigation (September 2021)
Evidence: In September 2021, a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia issued a subpoena to DTR seeking communications and records related to its fundraising and accounting, covering documents from November 1, 2020 onward. Forbes, the Seattle Times, and AP reported on the investigation.
The Guardian reported in December 2021 that the grand jury had found Powell filed false incorporation papers listing Wood and Castleberry as board members without their consent, and that investigators were examining whether Powell had misrepresented the organization’s governance and diverted funds to her personal legal defense. No public charging document has been filed as of August 2026; the investigation’s status and disposition are not publicly known.
Source: Forbes, “Sidney Powell Fundraising Groups Reportedly Subpoenaed As Part Of Criminal Investigation,” Nov. 30, 2021; The Guardian, “Sidney Powell filed false incorporation papers for non-profit, grand jury finds,” Dec. 3, 2021; Seattle Times, “Prosecutors demanded records of Sidney Powell’s fundraising groups as part of criminal probe.”
Pattern: Federal criminal investigation into fundraising representations and fund disposition
7. Revenue Collapse Following Powell’s 2023 Guilty Plea
Evidence: DTR’s fundraising trajectory tracks Powell’s legal exposure with clarity. Revenue peaked at $16.4 million in fiscal year 2021, the height of Powell’s Kraken campaign. By fiscal year 2022, contributions had fallen to $938,139 — a 94% drop. Fiscal year 2023 contributions were $1,192,541.
The collapse preceded Powell’s October 19, 2023 guilty plea but coincides with the accumulation of legal pressure: the September 2021 federal grand jury subpoena, the filing of the Florida regulatory action, Dominion’s defamation suit, and the indictment in the Georgia RICO case.
After Powell’s plea, in which she acknowledged she had engaged in criminal conduct in connection with the election-fraud claims that were DTR’s fundraising foundation, the organization’s core fundraising proposition — that the 2020 election had been stolen and that Powell’s litigation was exposing it — was invalidated by Powell’s own admission.
Source: IRS Form 990, Defending the Republic Inc., FY2022 and FY2023 (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, EIN 85-3930804); State v. Trump et al., Fulton County Superior Court, Oct. 19, 2023.
Pattern: Revenue model dependent on maintaining false election-fraud narrative
Pattern Analysis
Cross-References
DTR represents the clearest documented intersection in the Stop the Steal ecosystem between election-fraud disinformation, charitable solicitation fraud allegations, personal enrichment concerns, and the financing of January 6 defendants. The organization’s documented trajectory — launched on false claims, raising millions before the legal entity formally existed, refusing independent audit, funding seditious conspirators, facing federal grand jury scrutiny, and then collapsing when its principal pleaded guilty — maps directly onto the Powell individual profile.
Related profiles:
- Sidney Powell — Political Accountability Profile — the organization’s principal and subject of related criminal and civil proceedings
- Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani — Political Accountability Profile — parallel Kraken-era coordination; ran parallel informal fundraising operations
- Michael Flynn — Former National Security Advisor; Coup Planner; DOJ Settlement Recipient — co-present at December 18, 2020 Oval Office meeting proposing Powell as Special Counsel; received legal defense support from allied fundraising vehicles
Related skills:
corporate-intelligence-investigator— company registry, nonprofit financial investigationpublic-corruption-ombudsman— evidence tier definitions and accountability categoriesnetwork-analysis-specialist— relationship mapping within the Stop the Steal financial apparatus
Severity Assessment
Immediate harm: High — Approximately $21.6 million raised from donors on the basis of claims the organization’s principal has since admitted were part of a criminal conspiracy. Documented use of funds to finance legal defense of individuals convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Democratic erosion: Critical — DTR served as a primary financial engine for the Stop the Steal narrative between November 2020 and late 2021, sustaining donor belief in election fraud at a scale ($16.4M peak) that exceeded most comparable vehicles. The organization provided the financial infrastructure that kept Powell’s litigation campaign, media presence, and movement credibility operational through the critical post-election period.
Authoritarian marker: Weaponization of legal institutions (frivolous multi-state litigation funded by mass small-dollar donors); financial extraction from the movement’s own base; use of charitable vehicle to fund insurrection-adjacent legal defense.
Accountability Status
Current status: Organization active as of 2023 IRS filing; Powell pardoned for federal exposure (second term, 2025); Georgia conviction (misdemeanor, 2023) not subject to federal pardon; federal grand jury investigation status publicly unknown.
Legal exposure:
- Federal: Grand jury investigation (September 2021 subpoena) examining possible wire fraud, charitable solicitation fraud, and false statement violations in connection with DTR’s fundraising. No public charges filed as of August 2026. Applicable statutes: 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (wire fraud), 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (false statements to investigators/government entities), state charitable solicitation fraud statutes.
- Civil: US Dominion Inc. v. Powell, No. 1:21-cv-00040 (D.D.C.) — Dominion’s $1.3 billion defamation suit includes allegations of fraudulent fund diversion. Active litigation; no final disposition as of August 2026.
- State — Florida: $10,000 administrative fine for charitable solicitation violations (2021). Registration status: claimed CH65706.
- State — Georgia: Powell’s 2023 misdemeanor convictions stem from the same election-fraud scheme DTR funded. Not subject to federal pardon; six years probation, $6,000 fine, $2,700 restitution.
Congressional oversight:
- House Select Committee on January 6: Final Report (December 2022) documents Powell’s personal conduct; DTR’s role as financial vehicle for the Stop the Steal legal campaign is subsumed in the broader documented fundraising fraud findings (pp. 395–397, 481, 568–579).
- Senate Judiciary Committee: Jurisdiction over DOJ’s handling of the grand jury investigation and any prosecutorial decisions.
Public accountability:
- ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: Full Form 990 record (EIN 85-3930804)
- CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington): Tracking Stop the Steal fundraising apparatus
- OpenSecrets: FEC PAC filings (C00771139) and related campaign finance data
- Dominion Voting Systems: Active litigation; discovery record holds significant undisclosed financial documentation
- Washington Post investigative team: Ongoing coverage of Stop the Steal fundraising
Truth and Reconciliation Considerations
Investigation Priorities
- Full accounting of pre-incorporation donations (November 25 – December 1, 2020): Establish where approximately one week of donor funds went before DTR was legally formed. Bank records, payment processor logs, and wire transfers from this period are essential; current public record has a documented gap confirmed by DTR’s own attorney.
- Complete vendor and legal fee disclosure: DTR’s Form 990 does not itemize payments to law firms; the gap between $16.4M raised and $8M in documented 2021 expenses represents approximately $9.2M whose disposition requires primary-source documentation. Specifically: what law firms received payments, what services were invoiced, and whether Powell’s personal legal defense costs appear as organizational expenses.
- Governance documentation: The grand jury finding that Powell filed false incorporation papers naming board members without their consent raises questions about whether donors were misled about the organization’s governance structure in a material way. Full board minutes, written consents, and all communications with named officers are relevant.
- Stop the Steal ecosystem financial mapping: DTR’s relationship to other November–December 2020 fundraising vehicles — whether donors, vendor lists, or payment processors were shared with Ali Alexander’s Stop the Steal LLC, Giuliani-affiliated fundraising, or True the Vote — remains undocumented in public records. Bank record subpoenas across entities could establish whether the apparent organizational separation reflected financial separation.
- Oath Keepers legal defense payments: Full documentation of DTR payments to attorneys representing January 6 defendants, including Elmer Stewart Rhodes; whether these payments were disclosed to donors or approved by any governance body; and whether DTR’s stated mission of “election integrity” legally encompasses the funding of criminal defense for Capitol riot defendants.
Testimony Value
Powell’s compelled testimony (under use immunity per 18 U.S.C. § 6002) could uniquely establish:
- The internal decision-making process for how DTR funds were allocated to law firms, personal legal defense, and January 6 defendant representation
- Whether Powell believed her election-fraud claims were true at the time she was fundraising on them — the direct mens rea question for wire fraud and charitable solicitation fraud
- Who coordinated with Powell on fundraising strategy (including whether Trump campaign officials directed donors to DTR while knowing the claims were false)
- The fate of pre-incorporation donations and any subsequent transfers
Institutional Reform
- 501(c)(4) donor disclosure: DTR raised $16.4M in a single year with no donor disclosure requirement. Legislative reform requiring political nonprofits to disclose major donors (exceeding DISCLOSE Act thresholds) would prevent recurrence of this dark-money fundraising architecture in future election-fraud disinformation campaigns.
- State charity regulator coordination: The Florida action was isolated; no coordinated multi-state response emerged despite DTR soliciting nationally. Federal-state coordination mechanisms for charitable solicitation fraud in politically-inflected contexts need strengthening.
- Bar discipline pre-registration: Powell faced sanctions in multiple courts and bar complaints in Texas while continuing to fundraise. Expedited bar suspension procedures for attorneys under active multi-court sanction orders, or fundraising registration restrictions pending bar proceedings, could limit the use of attorney credibility as a fundraising asset during pending discipline.
- Timing of legal entity formation: Regulation requiring disclosure to donors when a soliciting organization is not yet legally incorporated, including clear statements that funds may not be directed to any legal entity, would close the pre-incorporation donation gap DTR exploited.
Investigative Trail Pointers (Public Records)
Education only — verify independently. Absence of hits is not proof.
| Channel | Starting points |
|---|---|
| IRS Form 990 | ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: EIN 85-3930804. Download full 990 PDFs with all schedules for FY2020–FY2024 to access itemized vendor lists and compensation schedules not available in database extracts. |
| FEC filings | FEC.gov Committee ID C00771139 (Defending the Republic PAC Inc.); filter for all receipts and disbursements 2020–2024. |
| Federal courts | CourtListener / PACER: US Dominion Inc. v. Powell, No. 1:21-cv-00040 (D.D.C.) — Dominion’s discovery record includes DTR financial documents; Coomer v. Powell for deposition transcripts containing Powell admissions about law firm compensation. |
| Grand jury | U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia public records; September 2021 subpoena reported by Forbes and Seattle Times. FOIA requests to DOJ for any non-grand-jury materials may be responsive. |
| Florida regulatory | Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services administrative records; registered charity #CH65706; Sun-Sentinel FOIA for full complaint documentation. |
| Campaign finance | OpenSecrets.org profile for DTR PAC (C00771139); cross-reference with Save America PAC and Stop the Steal PAC donor lists for shared donor networks. |
Use corporate-intelligence-investigator, public-records-research-specialist, and public-corruption-ombudsman evidence tiers for extended investigation.
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For Trump Supporters: Questions Worth Considering
Sidney Powell told you the 2020 election was stolen. She raised $16.4 million in one year from people who believed her.
In October 2023, she pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy charges in Georgia — admitting that what she did in connection with those election-fraud claims was a crime.
Her own nonprofit’s attorney testified in a deposition that he doesn’t know where donations made before the organization was legally formed went. In a separate deposition, Powell said she “certainly hoped” her law firm would be paid from the donation money. The nonprofit reported paying her $0 in compensation. The federal government subpoenaed the organization’s financial records.
Some of the donation money went to defend Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers leader convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in January 6.
Here are the questions a consistent standard would require:
On the money: If a progressive nonprofit raised $16 million on claims that turned out to be false — claims its founder later pleaded guilty to criminal charges over — and then refused to allow an independent audit of how the money was spent, would you consider that fraud? What’s different here?
On donor trust: The people who gave to Defending the Republic believed Sidney Powell was using their money to prove the election was stolen. She has since admitted the underlying conduct was criminal. What does it mean that their donations went to defend someone who was, by her own admission, engaged in criminal activity?
On accountability: Powell was pardoned for her federal exposure. The Florida fine was $10,000. The grand jury investigation has produced no public charges. The donor money is spent. Does that outcome — pay a small fine, get pardoned, keep the money — represent the accountability standard you’d apply to anyone else who raised millions on claims they later admitted were criminal?
Sources
- IRS Form 990, Defending the Republic Inc. (EIN 85-3930804), Fiscal Years 2020–2023. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/853930804
- FEC Committee Filing, Defending the Republic PAC Inc. (C00771139). FEC.gov: https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00771139
- US Dominion Inc. v. Powell et al., No. 1:21-cv-00040 (D.D.C.), complaint filed Jan. 8, 2021; Dominion court filing, May 5, 2022 (fund diversion allegations). CourtListener: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/29090821/us-dominion-inc-v-powell
- State v. Trump et al., Fulton County Superior Court, Case No. 23SC188947; Sidney Powell plea allocution and plea agreement, Oct. 19, 2023.
- The Guardian, “Sidney Powell filed false incorporation papers for non-profit, grand jury finds,” Dec. 3, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/03/sidney-powell-filed-false-incorporation-papers-for-non-profit-grand-jury-finds
- Forbes, “Sidney Powell Fundraising Groups Reportedly Subpoenaed As Part Of Criminal Investigation,” Nov. 30, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/11/30/sidney-powell-fundraising-groups-reportedly-subpoenaed-as-part-of-criminal-investigation
- Washington Post, “Sidney Powell raised millions on false election claims, then used the money to fund her legal defense,” Oct. 14, 2022.
- Washington Post, “Sidney Powell’s defense fundraising arm faces questions about how money has been spent,” Dec. 6, 2021.
- Sun-Sentinel, “Nikki Fried hits former Trump lawyer’s charity for deceptive claims,” June 18, 2021.
- Seattle Times, “Prosecutors demanded records of Sidney Powell’s fundraising groups as part of criminal probe.” https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/prosecutors-demanded-records-of-sidney-powells-fundraising-groups-as-part-of-criminal-probe
- BuzzFeed News, Ken Bensinger reporting on DTR expenditures for January 6 defendant legal defense, 2022.
- January 6th Select Committee Final Report, December 2022, pp. 395–397, 481, 568–579.
- OpenSecrets, Defending the Republic PAC profile (C00771139). https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/defending-the-republic-pac/C00771139
- Powell deposition, Coomer v. Powell, February 2021, re: law firm compensation from DTR funds. Reported by Denver Post, NBC Boston, San Diego Union-Tribune.
Last Updated: 2026-08-21 Profile Status: Draft Next Review: Quarterly