The people donating to a Trump campaign-fronted “Stop the Steal” campaign in a futile attempt to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office are likely actually donating to a general fund for the GOP or to Trump’s personal PAC, Reuters reports.

The “Stop the Steal” fund is only keeping amounts over $8,000, which are the vast minority of donations.  Donations over that amount have the first $8,000 going to the GOP and the PAC.

According to the fine print, the first $5,000 goes to the PAC and up to $3,600 would to the GOP.  Donations to the so-called “recount account” is legally limited to $2,800 per person.

Unlike campaign donations, PAC money can be used for a variety of purposes, including paying family members, financing lifestyles of the candidate and other campaign executives, or paying for meetings in exotic locations.  It could also be used to pay for the use of Trump hotels and resorts for meetings, putting more money directly into Trump’s pockets.

The GOP could use funds to pay for standard operating expenses for the organization as well as its local operations, like local office space or staff salaries.

The bottom line:  most of the money donated to “Stop the Steal” won’t go to lawsuits or efforts to support a recount.

“He’s really making a big deal about the challenge to the election, and that may very well be why a lot of people may give without paying attention to, or understanding, what the political language is,” Larry Noble, former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission, said. “It’s pretty dangerous to our democracy to use attacking our elections as a fundraising tool.”