WASHINGTON — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump sent cease-and-desist letters Friday to three Republican organizations asking them to stop using the former president's name and likeness in fundraising appeals and merchandise, a Trump adviser said Saturday.
The letters were sent to the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senate Committee — arms of the party tasked with raising money and shaping messaging, among other things, for the midterm elections and beyond.
The committees did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment. Politico was first to report the news.
Since Trump left office, the committees have repeatedly referenced him in emails asking for donations, hoping to use the president's popularity among some segments of the party to bolster their war chest as they work to win back control of the House and Senate in 2022.
Trump, however, has been reluctant to offer his support to the party establishment after he lost the presidency and was then impeached for a second time. Ten House Republicans voted with Democrats to impeach Trump, and seven Senate Republicans voted to convict him for allegedly inciting the deadly mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 intent on disrupting the electoral vote count formalizing Joe Biden's election win before a joint session of Congress. While that is by far the most bipartisan support for conviction in impeachment history, the final vote was 57 to 43, 10 short of the 67 votes needed to secure a conviction.
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After visiting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in January, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters that Trump had not committed to staying out of Republican House primaries.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend in Florida, Trump listed off the names of congressional Republicans who voted to impeach or convict him and said, "get rid of them all."
He also told attendees "there’s only one way to contribute to our efforts" to elect Trump Republicans: donating to his PAC, or via his website.
