When former President Donald Trump comes to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for next week's Republican National Convention (RNC), he may come in contact with several criminal defendants tied to alleged crimes he has yet to stand trial for. Legal experts are now saying the ex-president could run afoul of the law if he has encounters with them at the RNC.
Even though the 45th president of the United States has already been convicted of 34 felonies in New York, he's still facing dozens more felony charges in both state and federal jurisdictions. And because some RNC delegates are fake electors currently facing criminal charges, Trump may be in violation of his bail agreement if he has any contact with them. Politico legal correspondent Kyle Cheney reported that Trump has "sworn not to communicate with" any number of the "dozens of witnesses and alleged co-conspirators in his criminal cases" who will likely be among the RNC's estimated 50,000 attendees.
"If I were a Trump attorney, my biggest fear might be that Trump finds himself in close quarters with a defendant and starts running his mouth off," Georgia State University law professor Anthony Kreis told Cheney. "I imagine the tight scripted nature of the convention will help isolate Trump from that danger, but you also never know."
According to Cheney, some of the indicted fake electors from Arizona, Georgia and Nevada could get the former president in trouble if prosecutors have reason to believe he had private meetings with them during the convention. Should Trump find himself in their company next week, former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade told Politico that Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith and/or Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could petition the court to punish Trump — which could include pre-trial incarceration.
"If he were to meet with them in a conference room or hotel room, then concerns arise that they are violating not only the letter of the order but also the spirit of it,” McQuade said. “With regard to a public speech, I think general comments about politically motivated prosecution probably would not cause any concern, but if Trump starts detailing his version of a cover story, then that could prompt prosecutors to argue that he has breached his terms of release.”
Trump is currently still under indictment in two ongoing election interference cases. The former president is accused of colluding to disrupt the certification of electoral votes in Congress, and of conspiring to meddle in the 2020 election in Georgia's largest county. Both indictments allege cooperation with Republican officials who will be at Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee next week, who Cheney reports "remain active in the party."
"They include Nevada state party Chair Michael McDonald; Michigan GOP Committee member Kathy Berden; and Arizona GOP activist Nancy Cottle, who obtained court permission this week to attend," he wrote.
RNC organizers are planning to stick to the script next week, according to Republican National Committee co-chair Michael Whatley. He told the Washington Post that the GOP aims to make efforts to craft the former president's image to be more palatable to voters not fully in the MAGA camp. This suggests his handlers will make moves to keep him away from any of the alleged criminals attending the convention.
The former president is likely to give his nomination acceptance speech on the last day of the convention. Notably, former Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro will have just been released from federal prison, and is scheduled to speak on the same day as Trump.
Click here to read Cheney's full report in Politico.
