Former President Donald Trump still holds great influence over much of the Republican Party and was previously reported to continue asserting his influence over the GOP through another PAC. Trump’s attorneys recently sent cease and desist letters to top Republican organizations against using his name and likeness.
First obtained by Politico, lawyers of the former president sent out cease and desist letters to the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee citing the use of his name and likeness in raising funds. The three organizations are the biggest GOP fundraising entities that are focused on electing Republicans in office.
This follows previous reports suggesting that Trump is looking to create a super PAC as he seeks to maintain his grip on the Republican Party while expanding his post-White House operations and continue his political agenda. A super PAC would allow Trump to raise an unlimited amount of money from any source without any spending limits. Trump also made changes to his fundraising operations last week.
According to filings in the Federal Election Commission, the former president turned his campaign committee, the Donald J. Trump for President and his Save America PAC into two PACs that would support Trump-backed candidates. Trump’s campaign committee has now become the Make America Great Again PAC or the MAGA PAC. Trump already revealed the PACs last week in his address to the attendees of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
Meanwhile, Trump also faces legal probes and court battles now that he has lost the protections of being president. One of which is the criminal probe brought on by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. that would look into whether Trump and the Trump Organization committed financial crimes. With the Supreme Court rejecting Trump’s appeal to block Vance’s subpoena on his tax records, Vance’s team has already obtained the financial documents. This would also mean that Trump’s longtime accountant, Allen Weisselberg is now under pressure to turn on the former president.
People familiar with the investigation revealed that the prosecutors’ goal is to convince Weisselberg to cooperate with the probe into the former president’s business dealings. This has also been echoed by legal experts.