Trump Faces Unique Legal Challenges at the RNC

Donald Trump will be rubbing elbows in Milwaukee with a crowd that may include dozens of witnesses and alleged co-conspirators in his criminal cases — people he has sworn not to communicate with about details of the charges against him.

Avoiding them may not be possible for the former president during the four-day convention, creating an unusual dynamic, and a potential legal liability for Trump, against the backdrop of a national nominating convention.

“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,” said Anthony Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University.

Several false electors for Trump in 2020 who were charged with crimes in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia are expected to be at the Republican National Convention. In addition, many of Trump’s former White House aides who testified to grand juries in Washington and Florida are likely to be on hand. Though the roster of speakers hasn’t been publicly shared, there’s a high likelihood that others embroiled in Trump’s alleged crimes — a long list of GOP officials and activists — will also be there.

The situation is, like many things associated with Trump, unprecedented, and it’s hard to gauge the likelihood that an interaction in a crowded convention hall could become legally perilous for the former president. But it’s not zero, according to legal experts.

“I imagine the tight scripted nature of the convention will help isolate Trump from that danger,” Kreis said. “But you also never know.”

General attacks on the prosecutions he’s facing in Washington, Florida and Georgia — familiar themes in Trump rallies and speeches — or superficial encounters with people involved in his cases are unlikely to raise prosecutors’ eyebrows. But legal experts say there are lines Trump could cross if he mentions codefendants or witnesses by name or has more substantive interactions with them. And even general remarks, whether scripted or extemporaneous, could present risks if they could be interpreted as pressure on witnesses against cooperation or an attempt to influence their future testimony.

“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,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney from the Eastern District of Michigan. “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.”

Violating release conditions can have an array of consequences, from facing tighter restrictions on his speech to being incarcerated while awaiting trial. In Trump’s New York criminal trial, in which he was convicted for covering up hush money payments to a porn star, Judge Juan Merchan considered jailing Trump for violating the terms of a gag order by making comments about witnesses and jurors. He imposed fines and issued stern warnings instead.

The Trump campaign declined to specify if it is taking steps to mitigate these risks at the convention, and it’s possible the former president won’t have direct interactions with those covered by his pretrial release conditions.

In Washington and Florida, Trump agreed to conditions that bar him from communicating “about the facts of this case with any individual known to the defendant to be a witness” unless his lawyer is present. In Georgia, where Trump is facing state charges related to the 2020 election, that restriction also extends to his 16 codefendants, including several current and former GOP officials.

Trump has an added wrinkle because of the gag order he’s under in Washington, which prohibits him “from making any public statements, or directing others to make any public statements that target … any reasonably foreseeable witness or the substance of their testimony.”

The dynamic is sure to be a subject of scrutiny. Compounding the challenge is that in two of Trump’s cases, he’s charged with a sweeping conspiracy to corrupt the results of the 2020 election, marshaling GOP leaders, state party officials and activists to accomplish the task. Many of those very figures remain active in the party and are expected to attend the convention.

They include Nevada state party Chair Michael McDonald; Michigan GOP Committeemember Kathy Berden; and Arizona GOP activist Nancy Cottle, who obtained court permission this week to attend.

Also likely to be found at the convention will be prominent members of Trump’s White House and intelligence community leadership involved in case the former president faces for hoarding highly classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and allegedly obstructing efforts by the government to reclaim them.

Trump is unlikely to go to trial in any of his ongoing three cases this year. Yet, because the cases remain pending, he is still subject to the conditions of pretrial release.

Alex Isenstadt contributed to this report.