As Trump Tells Super PACs to Return Cash, Clinton Disavows a few PACs

Trump's campaign also released a statement Friday acknowledging that he'd formally requested that nine unauthorized PACs claiming to support his presidential bid cease fundraising and return the donations they'd previously received.

"I am self-funding my campaign and therefore I will not be controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists who have corrupted our politics and politicians for far too long", Trump said Friday in a statement.

Amid mounting scrutiny of its ties to the Donald Trump campaign, the Make America Great Again super-PAC is closing up shop to nip a potential scandal in the bud.

Make America Great Again, however, appeared to be drawing donations from people who viewed it as a legitimate, pro-Trump enterprise.

The Post reported that Colorado political consultant Mike Ciletti has business ties to Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and also runs the superPAC.

Raging against super PACs fits well with Trump's populist appeal.

Most notably, Trump knocked Carson - who overtook Trump as the front-runner in Iowa in two recent polls - for his campaign "in Iowa being run by a super PAC".

The law prohibits super-PACs, which can accept unlimited donor contributions, from coordinating directly with campaigns, although the inherent murkiness of what constitutes "coordination" is one of the main reasons why advocates of transparency in campaign financing oppose them. The super PAC announced it would close down after the reports were published. Trump repeatedly points out that he can't be influenced by special interests because he's a billionaire funding his own campaign. Thus, given the invocation of Donald J. Trump in connection with your activities, we ask that you refund all funds received by you in connection with any fundraising undertaken to specifically support and/or done in the name of Donald J. Trump. Most of those donations came from those giving under $200 and very well could represent people purchasing Trump's famous "Make America Great Again" hats.

The release refers to super-PAC money as "dark money", a term typically used in the campaign finance world to refer to undisclosed money.

"He said, "Donald, I want to put $5 million into your campaign.' I said, 'I don't need it; I don't want it.' He said, 'No, no, I want to put five million in" Trump recounts.