CNN — Shortly before announcing her campaign against Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, Harmeet Dhillon, a well-connected conservative attorney, phoned an important ally to solicit his thoughts. In a brief conversation with Donald Trump – whom she has served as an on-again, off-again legal adviser – Dhillon said she planned to challenge McDaniel and wanted to know what the former president made of the 2022 midterm results. She didn’t ask for Trump’s endorsement, nor did he offer one, according to three people familiar with the previously unreported conversation. But she took the former president’s passivity as a green light...