9 Dem senators call on FEC to investigate the NRA for illegally coordinated political ads with GOP

[KelleyKramer]

Why the National Rifle Association Is Under Fire Like Never Before

The gun group faces growing scrutiny of its finances, political activity, and ties with Russian operatives.


https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/nra-russia-butina-torshin-trump-investigations/

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LaPierre said nothing in his address, however, about the more real ways in which the NRA is under fire. Nine Democratic senators recently called for the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether the gun group illegally coordinated political advertising with several Republican Senate candidates and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The NRA’s tax-exempt status is drawing scrutiny from regulators in New York, whose new attorney general remarked last October that the NRA isn’t an authentic charitable organization but “a terrorist organization.” A steady barrage of acrid political commentary from NRA national spokeswoman Dana Loesch and other NRA media figures has stirred a backlash among the organization’s own ranks and reportedly provoked concerns even for LaPierre. There are signs of financial woes, if not for NRA executives. These troubles come as the NRA faces rising opposition from advocacy groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords.org, leaders of a national gun-reform movement ignited by the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre and further energized by the teen survivors of last year’s mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.


The NRA’s leadership also now faces a distinct problem for an organization that has long wrapped itself in the rhetoric of “freedom loving” patriotism. Following investigative reports by multiple news organizations including Mother Jones, the past year has brought deepening federal scrutiny of the NRA’s ties with two Russian operatives: Alexander Torshin, who is suspected of Russian mob activity and money laundering by international authorities and was sanctioned by the US government last year, and Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty in December to a conspiracy charge and has been cooperating with US prosecutors.


The NRA-Russia connection is now a subject of at least five congressional investigations looking into the gun group’s finances and leadership, including a sweeping House Judiciary Committee probe launched earlier this month. US Attorney General William Barr announced on Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller found no prosecutable conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. But questions remain about Torshin and Butina, including whether they or other Russians may have used the NRA to illegally channel funds into the Trump campaign.

The core question about Torshin and Butina was about why the two were so eager to build ties with NRA leaders. An answer emerged with Butina’s arrest: They saw the gun group as a prime conduit to powerful Republicans and the party’s presidential nominee. (Butina stated her view in one email uncovered by the FBI that the NRA exerted major influence on the GOP and was “the largest sponsor of the elections to the US congress.”) But that core question can also be flipped around: Why were NRA leaders so eager to build and sustain ties with the pair of Russians?

Much more on the link ...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/nra-russia-butina-torshin-trump-investigations/


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[IthinkThereforeIAM]

1. Let's talk about that Russian money the NRA has been taking...

... just to make it a point of discussion, you know.