'Contingency plan': RNC chair says prepared for Trump to accept nomination from prison
Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley made a startling admission on Newsmax, sharing that the GOP is preparing for the possibility former President Donald Trump might have to give his nomination speech to the national convention from prison.
"We're working on that now," said Whatley, when asked by the host whether there were any plans for Trump being in prison during the convention. "I'm actually going up to Milwaukee this week and we're going to have a series of conversations."
That said, he added, "We expect that Donald Trump is going to be in Milwaukee and he's going to be able to accept that nomination."
"If not, we will make whatever contingency plan we need to make for it," he said.
Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to be convicted of a felony after a jury in New York found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records, connected to his plot to conceal hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
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Prosecutors working for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argued that this amounted to an election interference scheme in 2016, by concealing information about an extramarital affair Trump had with Daniels from the voting public.
Trump continues to maintain his innocence and is all but certain to appeal any sentence handed down by Judge Juan Merchan at the sentencing hearing on July 11, which will be just days before the Republican convention kicks off.
Even if Merchan does hand down a prison sentence, it is likely that the former president will be bonded out pending appeal to higher courts in New York, which could punt the date he begins his sentence to well after the November election takes place.