The Republican National Committee will stop covering former President Donald Trump‘s legal bills if he announces a presidential bid for 2024 too soon, according to reports.
The RNC has paid almost $2 million in legal fees for the former president as he faces different investigations into his financial dealings and conduct during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a committee official told ABC News. However, those payments will end soon after Trump announces a reelection bid because of the RNC’s policies on maintaining neutrality in elections — meaning if the former president announces a bid too soon, the RNC could stop contributing to his legal costs.
TRUMP TEASES 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RUN DURING DC ADDRESS
Trump has repeatedly teased a third bid for the White House, boosting those rumors even further during a speech in Washington, D.C., this week.
“I won the second time. I did much better the second time,” Trump said at the America First Agenda Summit on Tuesday. “We may just have to do it again.”
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The RNC has paid much of Trump’s legal costs, giving at least $1.73 million to three law firms representing the former president between October 2021 and June, as well as a $50,000 payment last month, according to the report.
The committee has used payments for the former president’s legal challenges as leverage before. The RNC once reportedly threatened to stop paying for several of his post-election court challenges during a dispute after the 2020 election, according to a book from ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl. Trump dismissed those claims as “fake news.”
