Friday afternoon, RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel accepted the resignation tendered by Elliott Broidy, a deputy finance chairman. Broidy, a venture capitalist living in Los Angeles, is a major Republican fundraiser and a big Trump supporter.  He was RNC finance chairman from 2005-2008. Broidy had an affair with a Playboy model who became pregnant. A financial settlement of $1.6M has now become public knowledge.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said Friday afternoon that she had accepted Broidy’s resignation.

“Obviously, these developments are new to me,” she told CNN. “I have not heard of any of this. Elliott and I spoke earlier today and he tendered his resignation. He doesn’t want to be a distraction.”

McDaniel said she was going to “take a look” at the situation facing Cohen, who continues to hold a top fundraising position at the RNC. “I haven’t had a chance to do my due diligence,” McDaniel said, adding that she hoped to talk with Cohen in the near future.

This is quite a story. Guess which attorney arranged the settlement with the model? The attorney is another RNC fundraiser – Donald Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen. Yikes. What a small world. Not really. This model was clever enough to have her personal attorney contact Cohen for the settlement when her relationship with Broidy ended. By then she was pregnant. Hey, guess who the model’s attorney is? His name is Keith Davidson and at that time he also had a client by the name of Stormy Daniels. Oh, ok. (Washington Post)

“Mr. Cohen reached out to me after being contacted by this woman’s attorney, Keith Davidson,” Broidy said in his statement. “Although I had not previously hired Mr. Cohen, I retained Mr. Cohen after he informed me about his prior relationship with Mr. Davidson.”

It’s all so cozy, isn’t it? You probably remember that Cohen claims he paid off Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet about her one night stand with then-candidate Trump. The Playboy model’s deal came in late 2017. The Stormy Daniels deal was in October 2016. In the Washington Post article, Davidson is described as a celebrity lawyer.

Broidy readily admits he had the affair and that he agreed to pay the woman over a two year period, submit to a paternity test and pay child support if she decided to keep the baby. The relationship is described as consensual. (You may also remember that the last RNC money man to resign was accused of sexual harassment which isn’t consensual.) The model’s name has not been revealed. Yet.

The woman decided to not keep the baby. Broidy issued this statement about that.

“I acknowledge I had a consensual relationship with a Playboy Playmate,” Broidy said in a statement to the Journal. “At the end of our relationship, this woman shared with me that she was pregnant. She alone decided that she did not want to continue with the pregnancy and I offered to help her financially during this difficult period.”

As I said, Broidy is a big donor and fundraiser for Republicans. He’s also on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition. (Washington Post)

In the first year of the Trump administration, Broidy was an outspoken advocate at the White House and on Capitol Hill on Middle East issues, particularly the need for action against Qatar, a rival power of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Broidy worked with George Nader, a Lebanese American businessman and power broker in the region who has been working in recent years as an adviser for the UAE, according to people familiar with their relationship.

Nader is a witness in Mueller’s investigation.

But wait, there’s more. One last twist. A man identified as one of the model’s current attorneys, Peter K. Stris, is also an attorney for another Playboy playmate that has recently been in the news with alleged involvement in Trump world. Karen McDougal was also represented by Keith Davidson. She sold her story to the National Enquirer for $150,000 in August 2016. At that point, the story was supposed to be killed. Of course, now Trump is president and she wants out of the agreement, so she can speak freely. That means she realized she sold out too cheaply. Hey, guess who her attorney now is? Yep. Peter Stris. My, my, my.

It’s all so cozy. I sure hope Chairwoman McDaniels finds the time to do that due diligence she needs to finish.