The RNC tells TPM (acronyms!) that Steele didn’t even know about the nightclub expenditures:
We are investigating the expenditure in question. The story willfully and erroneously suggests that the expenditure in question was one belonging to the Chairman. This was a reimbursement made to a non-committee staffer. The Chairman was never at the location in question, he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable. Good reporting would make that distinction crystal clear. The committee has requested that the monies be returned to the committee and that the story be corrected so that it is accurate.”
Jonathan Strong, who broke the story about the RNC’s expenditures at a Hollywood strip club, asked about the strip club expense, and was rebuffed by an RNC spokesperson who said that the organization doesn’t comment on specific expenditures.