Jeb Bush and Ron DeSantis lawyer Charlie Spies was ousted from his role as Republican National Committee (RNC) lead counsel this weekend, following exclusive reporting from The National Pulse. The news followed months of internal Trump campaign fights over the matter, which came to a head at the RNC’s Spring Forum at Mar-a-Lago this weekend.
But as the election looms closer, it is important that the role of legal counsel for the RNC is filled quickly by a MAGA loyalist. So, who is in the running right now? The National Pulse investigated and came up with a shortlist of three.
JESSE BINNALL.
A long-standing Trump-world lawyer, Binnall (pictured on the right, above) has the benefit of running his own firm, which specializes in election law and white-collar defense. Binnall has worked in Trump world since 2016, and in addition to helping challenge the 2020 results and representing Trump himself, Binnall’s clients include Michael Flynn, Devin Nunes, Truth Social, and Ric Grenell.
Binnall joined the Trump campaign in 2016 as an expert in RNC rules. He worked to ensure that Trump supporters were well represented at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. During that effort, he successfully testified as an expert witness on RNC rules in federal court on behalf of the campaign.
In 2020, Binnall led the election contest in Nevada on behalf of the Trump campaign. He also testified in front of the US Senate about election fraud in Nevada. Since then, Binnall has represented President Trump and various political entities related to him in civil litigation in Washington, DC, and around the country. He is a regular on Newsmax and other right-leaning media, supporting President Trump and fighting back against the lawfare of the Biden regime.
WILLIAM McGINLEY.
Bill McGinley (pictured on the left, above) is one of the top Republican election law lawyers in the nation, with extensive experience with national party committees, national conventions, campaign finance matters, and representing Republicans in recounts and election contests. McGinley’s work has covered ballot access, national nominating conventions, election integrity, recounts, and the certification process under the Electoral Count Act.
Previously a partner at Jones Day, he has served as RNC Deputy Counsel, NRSC General Counsel, and outside counsel to the NRCC. In 2016, McGinley helped lead the Trump campaign’s national convention delegate whip operation that defeated a Never Trump uprising that tried to steal the nomination. He has played a role in every Republican National Convention since 1996, except for 2020.
McGinley also served as President Trump’s White House Cabinet Secretary for over two and a half years. In 2019, he was a frequent guest on Bannon’s War Room, defending President Trump during the impeachment. In the summer of 2020, he was one of the first War Room guests to sound the alarm about the Biden campaign and their dark money allies’ schemes.
PAUL DANS.
Dans (pictured in the center, above) is the Director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation and former Chief of Staff at the Office of Personnel Management in the Trump Administration. With two degrees from MIT and a law degree from the University of Virginia, Dans also comes with big firm experience and major legal victories under his belt.
Dans conceived and helped set up Project 2025 (“2025 Presidential Transition Project”), bringing together over 100 major conservative groups to prepare personnel and policy recommendations for the next conservative president. During the 2016 election, Dans volunteered in the legal war room for Trump in Pittsburgh.
A New York litigator with over 25 years experience in Manhattan courthouses, he has worked at white shoe firms including Debevoise & Plimpton and Dewey & LeBoeuf, playing a seminal role in the Chevron Ecuador litigation – the most famous RICO case in the 21st century. Dans is known as the architect of a legal strategy that unraveled a $27 billion fraud against the company and helped free his clients against a bogus criminal prosecution cooked up by the plaintiff’s counsel who happened to be friends of President Obama.
Dans also has decades of election integrity experience dating back to his law school days where he was a volunteer legal clerk in the 1994 election contest of Hon. Ellen Sauerbrey for governor of Maryland, a hotly-contested “stolen” election, and a precursor for Bush v. Gore. As a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, Dans has served as a volunteer attorney on every presidential election since 2004.
WHO TO PICK?
My recommendation would be to assemble a team of all three of these excellent and expert Trump-world lawyers. But it will be for the RNC chairman, Michael Whatley, as well as his co-chairman Lara Trump, to make the call.
