RNC to stop paying Donald Trump's legal bills if he runs in 2024

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday's edition of State of the Union that if Donald Trump decides to seek the presidency again in 2024, the RNC will no longer be able to assist with his legal expenses.

"The RNC has paid more than $2.3 million to law firms representing him in his legal battles. If and when he does announce, will you stop paying his legal bills?" Bash asked McDaniel.

“We cannot pay legal bills for any candidate that’s announced. So these are bills that came from the Letitia James lawsuit that started while he was president,” McDaniel said of the Democratic New York State attorney general's $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against the Trump Organization. “It was voted on by our executive committee for our former president, that this was a politically motivated investigation and that’s what it’s been. But we cannot do in-kind contributions to any candidate. Right now he’s the former president being attacked from every which way with lawsuits, and he’s certainly raised more under the RNC than we’ve spent on these bills."

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Trump and his business are also under criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D).

Bash then prodded McDaniel to predict if Trump "will announce soon," but McDaniel said that she did not know. "Do you want him to announce soon?" Bash followed up. McDaniel responded that she is "only focused on 2022" and that her "mind can't even go there. I don't even know what I'm doing for Thanksgiving right now, let alone thinking about 2024."

Trump teased this possibility at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa on Thursday. “I will very, very, very probably do it again, OK? Very, very, very probably,” he said. “Get ready. That’s all I’m telling you. Very soon. Get ready. Get ready.”

On Saturday, rumors began swirling that Trump intends to declare his candidacy on November 14th – the same day as the deadline set by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol for Trump to testify and comply with a subpoena to handover documents related to the insurrection.

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