If former President Donald Trump wants to make a bid for the White House in 2024, he'll be left to pay his legal bills all on his own.
The Republican National Committee will no longer foot Trump's hefty legal bills if he decides to run for reelection.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Sunday told CNN the committee "cannot pay legal bills for any candidate that's announced."
The RNC confirmed last year that it was paying lawyer fees and other legal obligations for investigations into Trump's financial practices in New York. The committee has already shelled out more than $2 million in his defense against claims by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"So these are bills that came from the Letitia James lawsuit that started while he was president," McDaniel told CNN. "It was voted on by our executive committee for our former president, that this was a politically motivated investigation and that's what it's been."
"But we cannot do in kind contributions to any candidate right now," McDaniel added. "Right now, he's the former president who's being attacked from every which way with lawsuits, and he's certainly raised more under the RNC than we've spent on these bills."
A lawsuit filed by James in September accuses Trump and others, including his children, of misstating his net worth as well as the value of real estate assets to obtain favorable loan and insurance rates, while lowering the Trump Organization's tax obligations.
James is seeking to permanently bar the Trump family from being in the office of any New York-based company, and from entering into any New York real estate acquisitions for five years. She's also seeking a total of $250 million in penalties.
James has also referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Internal Revenue Service for criminal investigation.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and called the probe against him a "witch hunt."
Meantime, Trump is reportedly inching closer and closer to saying he's running in 2024 and is expected to launch his reelection campaign later this month.
While Axios reported a campaign launch date of November 14, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that no date has been locked in and Trump could move up his desired announcement date or push it back – depending on how Republicans fare in the midterm elections on Tuesday.
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