Story highlights Ron Paul said Friday that the party outsmarted itself in passing a 2012 rule that he said was aimed at blunting his influence on that summer's convention

The GOP's "Rule 40(b)" requires candidates win the "support of a majority of the delegates from each of eight or more states" in order to have their named placed on the nominating ballot

New York (CNN) Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Friday that the party outsmarted itself in passing a 2012 rule that he said was aimed at blunting his influence on that summer's convention.

The GOP's " Rule 40(b) " requires candidates win the "support of a majority of the delegates from each of eight or more states" in order to have their named placed on the nominating ballot. The raised threshold -- it had previously been a plurality from five states -- helped to prevent Paul's supporters from upstaging or distracting from the presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, on national television.

"They did not want my name to come up and so they changed the rules because we had the votes," Paul told CNN "At This Hour" anchors Kate Bolduan and John Berman. "We had the numbers to allow my name to be put into nomination, but they wouldn't do it."

Four years later, the same establishment figures who spearheaded the 2012 rules changes are facing a different kind of challenge: Donald Trump. But this time around, the requirement threatens to undermine a late effort to derail the billionaire front-runner.

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