Republican National Committee is in scandalous freefall
On April 3, 2017, Republican National Committee (“RNC”) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, along with then-RNC Finance Chairman Steve Wynn, issued a press release gloating: “I am delighted to announce the addition of these longtime friends of the Party and supporters of this administration to our Finance leadership team,’ said Chairwoman McDaniel. ‘Elliott Broidy, Michael Cohen, and Louis DeJoy will serve as National Deputy Finance Chairmen.'”
Jump ahead a year and ten days, and three of the RNC Finance heads are out in scandal. We know that RNC Finance Chairman Steve Wynn was forced to resign from his leadership position earlier this year following serious sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him by numerous people. To date, the RNC has not returned any of Wynn’s money.
Michael Cohen had his offices raided by the FBI this week and, according to the SDNY U.S. Attorney’s office, is under investigation for criminal activity. Not a good position to be in for Cohen, and things do not appear to become easier for him anytime soon.
Cohen also has a connection to the latest RNC Finance leader to resign, Elliott Broidy. It turns out that Broidy, who already was at the center of several ongoing matters, including making pitches to Russian companies as a “fixer” who could get sanctions listing removed for them – for a fee, naturally. Today, we learned that Cohen (yes, that “Fixer”) had negotiated a $1.6 million payment to a former Playboy model who Broidy allegedly impregnated. The lady, who is under an NDA like the one apparently used for Stormy Daniels and cannot speak, allegedly did not have the baby. Broidy acknowledged the relationship and stated, “She alone decided that she did not want to continue with the pregnancy and I offered to help her financially during this difficult period.”
To paraphrase the title of a children’s book, this year is turning out to a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for the RNC and its Finance Committee.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.