Law professor: RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel could face legal “trouble” after damning phone call

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel could soon be in legal hot water, experts predicted Friday after a report revealed she had participated in a November 2020 call where former President Donald Trump pressured two Michigan officials to not certify the 2020 election. The Detroit News first reported the recorded phone call, made Nov. 17, 2020, where Trump told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, that signing the document after first voting against doing so and then later voting to approve certification in the same meeting would make them look “terrible.”

McDaniel, a Michigan native, at one point during the call told the officials, “If you can go home tonight, do not sign it… we will get you attorneys,” with Trump adding that they will “take care of that.” McDaniel’s proposition raised a flag for legal experts online as it could be seen as bribing a public officer because “a promise was offered in exchange for an official act,” Georgia State law professor Anthony Michael Kreis wrote on X, formerly Twitter, citing section 750.117 of Act 328 of Michigan’s penal code, which governs such a violation. “It seems like Ronna McDaniel could be in some trouble in Michigan and Donald Trump may be facing a fifth set of charges. A promise was offered in exchange for an official act unlike in Georgia where the preferred method appears to have been limited to browbeating state officials,” he wrote.

“The real issue is whether providing a lawyer is a ‘valuable thing,’ Kreis added. “On the one hand, it isn’t the kind of thing that we typically would consider as being offered as a bribe. On the other hand, it is a materially valuable thing offered in exchange for an corrupt official act.” Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissman seemed to agree with the latter point: “Trump and Ronna McDaniel – Offering a thing of value to a public official to violate oath of office = a crime,” Weissman tweeted. McDaniel reportedly did not dispute the reported summary of the recordings.