Ronna McDaniel May Be in Big Trouble

The chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, has been pulled into Donald Trump's legal quagmire after a report claimed she was involved in efforts to pressure Michigan election officials to challenge the result of the 2020 election.

The former president and GOP frontrunner is facing a federal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith alleging he worked to overturn the results of the election, won by President Joe Biden. Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been charged with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing a congressional proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

According to The Detroit News, citing a leaked recording of a phone call by someone the publication said was present for the conversation, Trump personally pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, not to sign the certification of the election results in the state, which Biden won by 154,000 votes. It reports McDaniel was also involved in the call.

Newsweek contacted representatives for Trump by email and McDaniel by social media to comment on this story. Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the recording. The Detroit News reported that spokespeople for Palmer, McDaniel and Trump did not dispute a summary of the call. Hartmann died in 2021.

"We've got to fight for our country," the publication reports Trump as saying on the November 17, 2020 call. "We can't let these people take out country away from us."

McDaniel reportedly told the attorneys: "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it...We will get you attorneys."

Following the call, Palmer and Hartmann did not sign the official votes and tried to rescind their votes in favor of certification.

On X, formerly Twitter, Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor and political scientist at Georgia State University College of Law, said McDaniel "could be in some trouble" after the news broke because offering a lawyer could be considered a bribe under the Michigan Penal Code, which is a felony.

Alongside an extract of the code, he wrote: "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."

"The real issue is whether providing a lawyer is a 'valuable thing,'" he 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."

He continued: "If we think of bribery statues 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 this statute aren't so limited. Be curious to see caselaw..."

Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, told the publication Trump's actions "were taken in furtherance of his duty as president of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity, including investigating the rigged and stolen 2020 presidential election."

"President Trump and the American people have the constitutional right to free and fair elections," Cheung said.

Palmer confirmed she and Hartmann took a call from Trump but said she didn't remember what was discussed.

McDaniel repeated previous calls for an audit of the election.

"What I said publicly and repeatedly at the time, as referenced in my letter on Nov. 21, 2020, is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit," McDaniel said in a statement.