A Fundraiser Convicted of Defrauding ‘Vulnerable’ Victims Is Back — and Making Millions From Republican Campaigns

Jack Daly, who was convicted and sent to prison last year after pleading guilty to defrauding thousands of conservative political donors out of money, has emerged from federal custody to quietly re-establish himself as a top Republican Party campaign fundraiser.

A NOTUS investigation found that dozens of federal-level Republican political committees — including the Republican National Committee, numerous congressional committees and campaign operations tied to President Donald Trump — have together spent nearly $18 million on digital fundraising, donor lists and other services from Daly’s latest political consulting firm, Better Mousetrap Digital, according to Virgin Islands corporate filings and Federal Election Commission records.

Daly established Better Mousetrap Digital in September 2023, around the time he surrendered his North Carolina law license, accepted notice of disbarment and pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and lying to the Federal Election Commission.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Daly “targeted vulnerable victims, including a woman with Alzheimer’s and elderly veterans.” A judge in December 2023 sentenced Daly to four months in prison, a $20,000 fine and nearly $70,000 in restitution payments.

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Federal Bureau of Prisons records indicate Daly exited federal custody in June 2024. He is scheduled to remain under supervised release until mid-2026 and is currently petitioning a federal court to vacate his conviction.

Daly, through his attorney, Brandon Sample, declined to answer a series of questions from NOTUS about his legal history, experiences in prison and Better Mousetrap Digital’s operations and business model. Daly likewise declined to comment about whether Better Mousetrap Digital clients are aware of his legal situation and whether he’s ever lost business because of it.

But when asked by NOTUS about their contracts with Daly’s Better Mousetrap Digital for fundraising and data services, several Republican political committees said they will stop, or have stopped, working with the firm.

Among them: the Republican National Committee, which has paid Better Mousetrap Digital more than $1 million since September 2023. This includes payments as recently as last month, on Sept. 17 and Sept. 30, totaling nearly $15,000 for a “list acquisition,” according to FEC records.

“Services from this vendor originated more than two years ago under a previous leadership team, and currently the RNC does not have an ongoing business relationship with them,” RNC Communications Director Zach Parkinson told NOTUS. “The RNC runs one of the largest digital fundraising operations in the conservative ecosystem, which regularly works with a wide range of outside vendors for services. All RNC activities are conducted in full compliance with the law.”

The Mullin Victory Fund — a joint fundraising committee composed of Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s Oklahoma campaign committee, the senator’s Boots Political Action Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee — has spent about $66,000 with Better Mousetrap Digital since September 2023, FEC records indicate.

The Mullin committee’s most recent payment to Daly’s firm came last month, on Sept. 30 — $4,969 for “list rental fees,” per FEC records.

“We were not aware of this, and will not use them moving forward,” Mullin’s campaign committee said in a statement to NOTUS when asked if it was aware of Daly’s legal history.

Meanwhile, the reelection campaign of Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Republican of Wyoming, has spent about $122,000 on “fundraising fees” with Better Mousetrap Digital since 2023, including more than 30 transactions this summer and autumn, according to FEC records through September.

When asked why it works with Daly’s company, Hageman’s campaign told NOTUS that “we have advised all vendors to cease any sub-vendor relationships with the referenced company.”

The 1776 Project PAC has paid Better Mousetrap Digital about $151,000 since September 2023, with its most recent payment coming on June 30, for “fundraising consulting agency fees” totaling about $111,000, according to the most recently available FEC records.

“The 1776 PAC has never spoken to Jack Daly,” PAC spokesperson Mitchell P. Jackson said. “He was a digital vendor that worked for a vendor, who we no longer work with. In other words, Daly was a vendor of a vendor that we no longer use.”NOTUS attempted to contact more than three-dozen other Republican political committees about their payments to Better Mousetrap Digital, which range from the low four-figures to well into seven figures.

The federal-level committees of the Republican Party of Florida and West Virginia Republican Party acknowledged NOTUS’ inquiries but provided no answers to requests. The Republican state party committees in Arizona, California, Iowa, Minnesota and Texas, which also do business with Better Mousetrap Digital, did not respond to repeated messages.

Nor did several of Better Mousetrap Digital’s most lucrative federal clients, including the NRSC (more than $5.2 million in spending since September 2023), Trump National Committee JFC (nearly $3.6 million in spending) and the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee (nearly $1 million).

Congressional reelection committees that have recently used Better Mousetrap Digital and who did not respond to requests for comment include those of Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. The campaigns of Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Cory Mills, Byron Donalds, Jimmy Patronis and Kat Cammack of Florida also did not respond, nor did those of Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Ronny Jackson of Texas.

Better Mousetrap Digital also does some state-level political business. In New Jersey, for example, state campaign finance records indicate Republican political committee Elect Common Sense has spent more than $155,000 with Better Mousetrap Digital, mostly on “fundraising fees.” Kitchen Table Conservatives, a New Jersey super PAC in part led by former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway that’s supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli ahead of next week’s election, has spent more than $7,000.

On his LinkedIn page, Daly describes himself as “prominent and prolific digital fundraiser for more than one thousand clients (GOP candidates/committees and conservative/MAGA causes)” and a “leading digital fundraiser for President Trump & Congressional Republicans.”

Better Mousetrap Digital describes itself as the “premier digital fundraising consulting firm for Republicans. With decades of experience spanning from state house campaigns to the White House, we bring unparalleled expertise and dedication to our clients.”

On its website, the firm advertises Donald Trump for President, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the RNC as clients, alongside the committees’ logos.

Daly, who previously led digital fundraising firm Reach Right Digital Marketing LLC, per Virgin Islands corporate records, can trace his legal troubles back to 2017, the same year the Daily Caller published an article about Daly headlined, “How a shady super PAC convinced 20,000 conservatives to hand over their money.”

Prosecutors accused Daly and fellow attorney Nathanael Pendley of raising more than $1.6 million for a political committee, known as Draft PAC, that promised to convince former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke to run for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin ahead of the 2018 midterm election.

Clarke, who did not respond to requests for comment for this article, never ran for the Senate and maintained he never had intentions to do so, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Daly was operating a “scam PAC.” Federal prosecutors said Daly and Pendley kept fundraising anyway, in part for their personal benefit, and lied about their activities to federal officials.

In a letter to NOTUS, Sample — Daly’s attorney, who leads the Washington, D.C.-based Criminal Center LLC law firm — wrote that “a guilty plea is an admission only to the essential elements of the charged offense, and nothing more.”

While Daly “respects the freedom of the press,” Daly “will not tolerate the publication of any material that misrepresents the narrow scope of his plea, repeats as fact the government’s unproven and rejected allegations, or otherwise defames him,” Sample wrote.

Sample also emailed a copy of the transcript of Daly’s Dec. 15, 2025, sentencing hearing before U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Stadtmueller, with several passages highlighted.

Among them is a statement from Daly’s former attorney, Matthew Dean Krueger, that Daly’s crime is “a very limited offense.”

Krueger also told the court that “the government suggests that the defendants put each

of these prospective donors at risk. No, it is the other way around. It’s the donor that put themselves at risk by subscribing or submitting a contribution.”

Daly is now in the midst of a monthslong court proceeding in which he is fighting to have his conviction vacated.

In a Sept. 30 request for an evidentiary hearing, Sample argues in a filing with the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Wisconsin that Daly received “substantively incorrect advice” from his previous attorneys and was in “profound turmoil over his plea” — and therefore unable to make a “knowing and intelligent decision during the critical window when his right to withdraw that plea was absolute.”

In his 2023 plea agreement, Daly “acknowledges, understands and agrees that he is, in fact, guilty of the offense” of which he was charged. “The defendant admits that these facts are true and correct and establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

At Daly’s December 2023 sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Knight argued that “Mr. Daly has pled guilty to a year-long criminal conspiracy to lie to the FEC and to defraud donors. So the idea that somehow it’s inaccurate to suggest that there’s a multi-year course of criminal conduct, that’s literally the offense of conviction. That is beyond dispute at this point, and any suggestion to the contrary should just be flatly rejected.”