The Republican National Committee will no longer cover Donald Trump’s sky-high legal bills if he announces a run for the presidency, Chair Ronna McDaniel said Sunday.
“We cannot pay legal bills for any candidate that’s announced,” McDaniel told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Trump is increasingly indicating he will run in 2024 and could announce a race for the GOP presidential nomination as early as next week.
The RNC’s executive committee last year confirmed it was covering certain fees for Trump to battle what GOP officials considered “politically motivated legal proceedings” against a former Republican president (not a candidate). That included investigations and actions brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James concerning Trump Organization taxes and asset statements to banks.
McDaniel claimed on CNN that Trump has “raised more” for the RNC than the group has spent on his legal bills. The party has covered $2.3 million in bills, Bash noted. Trump, a billionaire, is sitting on a political war chest of over $100 million.
Once Trump announces he’s running for the presidency, the RNC will be constrained by a requirement to remain neutral in regard to all GOP candidates.
The Trump Organization is currently embroiled in a criminal case brought by Bragg that argues the company allegedly engaged in a 15-year scheme to dodge taxes by largely paying executives with undeclared perks such as homes and cars, allowing them to underreport compensation. The Trump Organization has pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing.
James filed a lawsuit in September accusing the Trump Organization, Donald Trump and his three eldest children of $250 million in fraud via an alleged scheme of vastly overvaluing assets to hoodwink banks to obtain lucrative loans.
Last week, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, at James’ request, approved a special monitor to oversee the Trump Organization’s financial statements and reports, and any shifting of assets.
Engoron ruled that the appointment of an independent monitor was justified to “prevent further fraud,” given the “persistent misrepresentations throughout every one” of Trump’s statements of the company’s financial condition between 2011 and 2021.