We need to talk about the NRA (1/many)
A new report out today says that the FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency (2/)
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Last year we learned that before the NRA poured more than $30 million into Trump’s election, it met with a notorious Kremlin hardliner (3/) thedailybeast.com/top-trump-ally…
We know that a top Putin ally was seated with the Donald Trump Jr. during a private dinner on the sidelines of a May 2016 NRA event during the convention in Louisville (4/) nbcnews.com/news/us-news/k…
But the NRA's questionable electoral activities go deeper than Russia connections. In 2015 we asked IRS to investigate the NRA for failing to disclose $33.5 million in political expenditures on its tax returns over a six-year period (5/) yahoo.com/news/d-c-watch…
Six months later, we raised more questions about the NRA's political spending (6/) citizensforethics.org/spurred-by-com…
We then found that the NRA failed to disclose more than $1 million in contributions to major Democratic and Republican leadership groups, bringing their total undisclosed political spending to nearly $60 million since 2008 (7/) citizensforethics.org/press-release/…
In 2015, the NRA contributed increased amounts to political groups focused on electing officials at the state level, giving a combined $441,510 to RAGA, RGA & RSLC. The sum is almost double what the NRA contributed to the three groups in 2014. (8/) citizensforethics.org/national-rifle…
In 2016, the NRA was buoyed by a single anonymous donation of $19.2 million. It spent $19.7 million attacking Hillary Clinton (9/) motherjones.com/politics/2018/…
So here's what we know: record spending, anonymous donors, reporting that doesn't add up (10/) nypost.com/2016/01/03/yea…
The NRA blames "flawed software" for its campaign finance errors (11/) thetrace.org/2017/05/fec-nr…
Taken together, it is clear that there are serious questions that must be asked about the NRA's political activity. (12/12)
