RNC head Ronna McDaniel could face bribery charges related to 2020 election: legal expert

Reacting to reports that Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniels was on the phone call that Donald Trump made to election officials in Michigan to pressure them to not certify the 2020 election results, one law professor claimed she could be investigated for bribery for promising legal help if they complied.

Based on the recently unearthed phone call the former president made to officials Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, imploring them not to sign the election document, the RNC head is heard chiming in with, "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. ... We will get you attorneys."

That offer of paying for attorneys could possibly be used to file criminal charges against McDaniel, according to Anthony Michael Kreis of the Georgia State University College of Law.

Taking to X, Kreis posted a screenshot of the bribery statute in Michigan, and suggested, "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 later added, "And that’s before any other public corruption / election fraud conspiracy type crimes that could be well implicated."

ALSO READ: Florida judge’s son is a neo-Nazi patron: data leak

He continued, "The real issue is whether providing a lawyer is a “valuable thing.” 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 a corrupt official act.

"If we think of bribery statutes as criminalizing the offering/accepting of goods that are enriching or personally benefiting the public official, then dangling an attorney falls outside that prohibition. But the terms of these statutes aren’t so limited. Be curious to see case law."

See below or at this link.