Mike Johnson forced to make 'very painful' cash move at the worst time: reporter

A super PAC tied to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had to give up a big chunk of cash less than three weeks before the midterm elections, according to a new report.

Jake Sherman, co-founder of Punchbowl News, reported early on Friday morning that the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), the main super PAC backing House Republicans, “had to pay $825,000 to the FTX Recovery Trust.”

“CLF took money from the now defunct FTX in previous cycles,” Sherman wrote on X.

FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, collapsed in late 2022. Bankman-Fried was later convicted of fraud. Since then, the people handling the company’s bankruptcy have been trying to recover money that FTX and its executives handed out, including political donations to both parties.

The timing is bad for Johnson. Republicans are trying to hold on to a narrow House majority, and CLF is one of the main ways the party pays for ads in close races. Every dollar sent back to FTX’s creditors is a dollar that won’t go toward defending vulnerable incumbents.

Sherman pointed that out in a follow-up post.

“Very painful to write an $825k check in the middle of an election year, i imagine,” he wrote. “A lot of members would love to be the beneficiaries of that @CLFSuperPAC money.”