NC Newsline: “Whatley has repeatedly avoided facing the law”
NC Newsline: “Whatley was subject to 2 arrest orders in 2015 after failing to appear in court, part of a pattern of avoiding court for traffic offenses”
New reporting from NC Newsline is exposing DC insider Michael Whatley’s decades-long criminal history. Whatley has had two separate orders issued for his arrest after driving dangerously and repeatedly failing to appear in court. He even failed to appear as recently as 2023. Whatley’s rap sheet includes a dozen more charges for speeding, dangerous driving, and more across North Carolina and Virginia.
“DC insider Michael Whatley clearly believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him,” said Mallory Payne, senior communications advisor for the North Carolina Democratic Party. “With a decades-long criminal history of dangerous driving, repeatedly failing to appear in court, and having multiple orders issued for his arrest, Whatley flouted the law and put North Carolina families at risk with his reckless behavior.”
Más información:
Brandon Kingdollar | April 25, 2026
- In December 2015 — the same month future Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley got the call to run Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign in North Carolina — he received a different kind of summons: an arrest order in Rutherford County for failure to appear in court.
- According to court records in 14 different traffic cases reviewed by NC Newsline from North Carolina and Virginia, Whatley has repeatedly avoided facing the law, failing to appear in court in four North Carolina traffic cases and being found guilty in absentia in four traffic cases in Virginia.
- Spokesmen for the Whatley campaign did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls requesting comment.
- The 2015 order for Whatley’s arrest was the second bench warrant issued in the Rutherford County case, in which he was charged in June of that year with speeding 64 mph in a 45 mph zone. That offense was charged as a misdemeanor, resulting in bench warrants on bonds of $500 and $1,000 when he failed to appear for court.
- He would not ultimately report to court until January 2016, following unsuccessful attempts to serve arrest orders in the previous September and December, Rutherford County court records show.
- The Rutherford County charges came just over two weeks after Whatley pleaded to another lesser charge in a Caldwell County court in a separate speeding case…
- Nearly a decade later, serving as general counsel for the national Republican Party, Whatley again failed to appear in court in June and July of 2023 — this time in Martin County…
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