A year ago this week, the Republican National Committee issued a press release that, at the time, seemed entirely forgettable. It read in part:
Today Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and RNC Finance Chairman Steve Wynn announced additional members of the RNC’s Finance leadership team:
“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….”
In hindsight, however, that’s quite a collection of individuals.
Steve Wynn, for example, was forced to resign from his RNC post earlier this year following sexual misconduct allegations. (The RNC refused to return his money.)
Elliott Broidy, meanwhile, has become quite a controversial figure in his own right. As Rachel noted on the show two weeks ago, Broidy is at the center of multiple, ongoing controversies, including allegations that he pitched himself, shortly before Trump’s inauguration last year, as someone who could help Russian companies get off the U.S. sanctions list for a fee.
And then there’s Michael Cohen, whose office and hotel room were raided by the FBI yesterday, and who’s at the center of multiple Trump-related scandals. By some accounts, Cohen is under investigation for, among other things, possible bank fraud. Taken together, the RNC’s finance chair, and two of its three deputy finance chairs, have been embroiled in some rather serious controversies. One has resigned in disgrace, and another appears to be facing a criminal investigation. Don’t be surprised if the RNC’s opponents start asking the party to start returning some of the money it received from its scandal-plagued finance team.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
