GOP Official Refuses to Pay Donald Trump Legal Expenses With RNC Funds

Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Donald Trump‘s 2024 presidential campaign, said on Friday he won’t pay the former president’s legal expenses with funds from the Republican National Committee (RNC).

New York Attorney General Letitia James in a lawsuit filed in September 2022 accused Trump, his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, The Trump Organization and two firm executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney of fraudulently overvaluing assets to secure more favorable bank loans and taxation deals.

Trump, the GOP frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination, was then fined roughly $355 million by Judge Arthur Engoron in the civil fraud case. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and claimed it was politically motivated, vowing to appeal the verdict.

Engoron’s judgment comes weeks after Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million to former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll for damaging her reputation after she accused him of sexually assaulting her during an incident in the 1990s. A separate jury last year awarded Carroll $5 million from Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in those cases and vowed to appeal them as well.

With the civil fraud ruling and the two judgments in Carroll’s defamation case, the former president would be responsible for approximately $542 million in judgments. According to James, the interest payments in his civil fraud case totaled $99 million and would “continue to increase every single day until it is paid.”

Meanwhile, the current chair of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, informed Trump that she intends to step down from the role after the South Carolina primary on February 24, according to a report from the New York Times citing anonymous sources close to the matter. This report comes amid months of mounting criticism of McDaniel’s performance in the role, particularly from Trump supporters.

Since then, Trump endorsed his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who is married to Eric, for the role of RNC co-chair. She previously served as an adviser for his 2020 presidential campaign. The former president also endorsed North Carolina Republican Party chairman, Michael Whatley, who serves as general counsel of the RNC, as chair.

On Friday, LaCivita, who is set to take on RNC operating officer duties, said he will not use funds from the RNC to cover Trump-related legal expenses when asked about it by NBC News.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, NBC News White House reporter Katherine Doyle noted LaCivita’s response, “‘No,’ LaCivita says in South Carolina where Trump is taking the stage. Asked to clarify, he responds: “F****** no.'”

Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign via email for comment.

LaCivita’s response comes after Lara previously told Newsmax that, if she were elected to the position of co-chair, she would ensure that the RNC would use its “every penny” on working to reelect her father-in-law in November.

“If I am elected to this position, I can assure you there will not be any more $70,000, or whatever exorbitant amount of money it was, spent on flowers,” she said. “Every single penny will go to the number one and the only job of the RNC. That is electing Donald J. Trump as the president of the United States.”

LaCivita’s remarks also come after Michael Steele, the former chairman of the RNC and a Trump critic, took aim at Lara’s proposal.

“I will start by saying: wrong answer,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC‘s The Weekend last Sunday. “That is not the number one responsibility of the RNC to elect Trump. The number one responsibility is to elect every candidate on the ballot on behalf of the party. It is to raise money for those candidates who are on the ballot. It is to place the infrastructure every candidate will need.”

He continued: “You are required—so let me give you a little bit of training here Lara since you want the job—you are required to organize and coordinate every state party and the territories of the United States who are in that Republican family and you are to provide them with a platform from which you will launch a platform to talk about what the party believes in.”