Only months after taking the job, Republican National Committee chief counsel Charlie Spies has resigned from the role.
“Working full time at the RNC wasn’t the right fit with my law firm-client commitments, but I will remain focused on getting President Trump and Republicans at all levels elected in November,” Spies said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
RNC spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez also cited “potential time commitment conflicts” as a reason for Spies’s departure in a statement to NBC News published earlier on Sunday.
“Charlie approached RNC Chief of Staff, Chris LaCivita, about potential time commitment conflicts and it was agreed that, while we appreciate and value Charlie’s expertise and professionalism, he cannot do this role full time and still maintain the obligations to his law firm that he has spent years successfully building,” Alvarez told the outlet in a statement.
However, according to the NBC News report, which cites an anonymous source, alleges Spies was “pushed out” of the job.
Spies was hired earlier this year while RNC leadership changed over to former President Donald Trump’s preferred picks of chairman Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump.
He was part of a bevy of new hires made as the RNC was staffed for more Trump-aligned actions, including readying potential legal challenges in swing states. Reports suggested that Spies was skeptical of Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Democratic National Committee spokesman Alex Floyd bashed the move as an example of how Trump is allegedly purging the RNC of those who dissent from him.
“Donald Trump’s MAGA takeover of the RNC has already led to mass staff firings and an election denier litmus test for new hires — and now the committee’s top lawyer is the latest GOP official purged for disagreeing with Trump’s dangerous conspiracy theories about the 2020 election,” Floyd said in a statement.
“Trump continues to push the Big Lie along with the rest of his extreme MAGA agenda while trying to bend the Republican Party to his will.”
“His own staff don’t believe his unhinged conspiracy theories, and neither do the American people, who are ready to reject Trump and his attacks on our democracy once again this November,” he added.
