Trump PAC Pushing Baseless Voter Fraud Claims Reportedly Paid $60K to Designer Known for Styling First Ladies

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty From left: Donald and Melania Trump

Former President Donald Trump's Save America leadership PAC has paid a total of $60,000, in four separate installments, to a designer who once styled former first lady Melania Trump, in addition to first ladies Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.

The PAC, which was launched after the 2020 presidential election to challenge its outcome, paid Hervé Pierre Braillard $6,000 on April 7, and made three additional payments of $18,000 each to the French fashion designer on May 4, June 3 and June 24 of this year, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

USA Today was first to report the news.

The monies are described as "strategy consulting" services, according to the filings, and a senior official with Save America elaborated in an email statement to PEOPLE.

"Mr. Pierre serves as a senior advisor to Save America, involved in event management and special projects," the official said.

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It is against FEC rules for candidate PACs to spend money on personal items, according to USA Today, but the group is described as a "leadership PAC," which has fewer restrictions.

The House Select committee, which is investigating the Capitol insurrection, has openly criticized Save America, which has raised millions of dollars to fight election fraud claims.

This is not the first time the PAC has been in the spotlight regarding its disbursement of funds.

Last week, nonprofit news source Bridge Michigan reported that eight of the nine Republicans endorsed by Donald Trump in state legislative races have not returned "excessive campaign funds" from the PAC that they received in December, citing campaign finance reports.

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Save America is limited by law to giving candidates $2,100 apiece in state Senate races and $1,050 in House races, according to the outlet, which reported that the PAC gave nine candidates $5,000 each.

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Braillard, who designed Melania's inaugural ball gown, discussed his connection with the controversial first lady in a 2017 interview with Vanessa Friedman in The New York Times.

"The beauty of this country is it's a democracy, so some people want to dress certain people and some people don't want to," he told the paper's fashion director and chief fashion critic. "I choose to."

"If you forget about the political, or whatever, that's behind it, the needs are so interesting to answer," he continued. "Even if I'm not creating the clothes, it is very creative to consider how it's going to be perceived."