Major RNC fundraiser resigns due to Michael Cohen-arranged sex scandal hush money payment

On April 3, 2017, Republican National Committee finance chair Steve Wynn announced the addition of new members to the committee’s leadership team, with two names leading the pack as national deputy chairs: Elliott Broidy and Michael Cohen. “The challenge of guiding a swollen and overreaching government to a position that serves its citizens in a truly efficient manner will be best served by the leadership our team hopes to achieve,” Wynn said in a statement.

In January of this year, Wynn resigned from the committee after dozens of women accused him of sexual assault and abuse. On Monday of this week, Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room were raided by FBI agents investigating his role in making hush money payments to two women on behalf of Donald Trump.

And Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen helped make another payment: $1.6 million to a former Playboy playmate reportedly impregnated by Cohen’s RNC committee colleague Elliott Broidy. Broidy has reportedly resigned from the RNC.

According to the Journal, in the settlement agreement, Cohen even used the same pseudonyms for Broidy and the former Playboy model as he used in the nondisclosure agreement between Trump and porn actress Stormy Daniels: David Dennison and Peggy Peterson.

Cohen is still a member of the RNC finance committee as of today. And the RNC (and a Trump 2020 Super PAC) have refused to return Wynn’s donations.

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