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GOP superlawyer on contested convention rule: 'In fact, that's not a rule'

A Republican presidential candidate likely won’t have to abide by a 2012 rule requiring him to accrue a majority of delegates in eight states to be considered for the nomination should a contested convention occur in July, according to current and former Republican National Committee rules committee members.

“In fact, that's not a rule,” former RNC lawyer Ben Ginsberg — the party's preeminent election law expert — told MSNBC early Wednesday morning. “That's part of what's called the temporary rules. Each convention has to pass for itself the number of states that put a candidate's name in nomination.”

In 2012, revisions to Rule 40 raised the required number of states from five to eight, but no number is in effect for the Cleveland convention, according to Ginsberg. “The 2016 convention and its rules committee has to make that decision,” he said. “So there is no eight-state rule in effect right now for the next convention.”

“The 2016 convention can make that number one, eight, 18, 28 or 58, if it wishes,” he added.

Curly Haugland, an RNC committeeman and member of the convention’s rules committee from North Dakota, clarified to POLITICO that rules 26 through 42 stood for the 2012 convention but are only temporary until the rules committee and order of business reports are adopted at the 2016 convention.

“Rules aren’t fixed until the convention,” explained Haugland, who sat on the rules committee with Ginsberg at the 2012 convention in Tampa, Florida. “Rule 40 will likely be amended, but it’s a temporary rule. It’s not nonexistent.”

Ginsberg also delved into the political optics of what happens if Trump goes into the convention either with or without the 1,237 delegates required to form a majority.

“Trump's contest is with himself to be able to amass enough delegates to come to Cleveland with a majority," he said. “If Trump has a majority, it is done. He will be the nominee.”

But if Trump comes up short, Ginsberg said, "It depends on how short he is.”

“Someone who goes in with 43 percent of the delegates will be barely over 1,000 — more than 200 delegates short," Ginsberg said. "That's a historically weak candidate going into the convention. If he's 50 short, then that's pretty tough to take away.”