NRA Says It Receives Foreign Funds, But None Goes To Election Work

[DonViejo]

Source: NPR




March 27, 201811:11 AM ET

The National Rifle Association acknowledged that it accepts foreign donations but says it does not use them for election work — even as federal investigators look into the role the NRA might have played in Russia's attack on the 2016 election.

Pressure on the organization has also been increased by a McClatchy report which suggested that the FBI had been investigating whether a top Russian banker with Kremlin ties illegally funneled money to the NRA to aid President Trump's campaign for president. The Federal Election Commission has also opened a preliminary investigation into this question.

The NRA is not required to be transparent about how money moves between its various political entities, and this leaves questions unanswered about how these foreign funds were ultimately spent.

In the context of ongoing investigations, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to the National Rifle Association earlier this month asking, "Can you categorically state that your organizations have never, wittingly or unwittingly, received any contributions from individuals or entities acting as conduits for foreign entities or interests?"



Read more: https://www.npr.org/2018/03/27/597279176/nra-says-it-receives-foreign-funds-but-none-goes-to-election-work

[Gothmog]

1. Money is fungible

The concept that one can segregate funds and avoid a FEC issue does not work

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. Trap, they are gonna say PP does same thing. 3, 2 ...1 ...

Problem is in the case of NRA it makes no sense to put money in different pockets anyway. They have one goal, and all of their money goes to that ONE goal.

Unlike someplace like PP.

[Javaman]

3. yeah, right. as if we are supposed to believe the nra about anything. nt

[Botany]

4. So where did they get their $50.2 million they spent in 2016?

The gun rights group placed multimillion-dollar bets on Donald Trump and six Republican Senate candidates
locked in highly competitive races. It poured $50.2 million, or 96 percent of its total outside spending, into
these races, and lost only one — an open seat in Nevada, vacated by the Democratic Minority Leader, Harry
Reid. That race cost the NRA roughly $2.5 million.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/11/the-nra-placed-big-bets-on-the-2016-election-and-won-almost-all-of-them/

And thanx to citizen's united much of the NRA's spending is "dark money"

Moreover, in the case of the NRA, the FBI is now investigating whether illicit funds were spent in support of Trump's political campaign. We have long warned that our broken system of campaign finance disclosure creates opportunities for foreign governments to illegally influence American elections, undetected.

The NRA is among the largest "dark money" organizations, reporting the greatest amount of campaign spending without revealing the source of the funds — over $35 million in the 2016 election cycle alone. Still, this amount was just a fraction of the over $175 million in reported campaign-related spending that came from unknown sources.

As these examples demonstrate, the Russia investigation is not just relevant to allegations of collusion, or even just to Russia. It is revealing a fundamental vulnerability in our political system — one that is being exploited by Russia, but that is also being exploited by others, foreign and domestic, who want to see American government serve their interests instead of the interests of the American public.



https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/nra-russia-and-trump-money-laundering-poisoning-us-democracy-commentary.html

[cstanleytech]

5. I smell a bullshit defense. nt

[safeinOhio]

6. Court needs to look at the books.

I'm sure they will be glad to open them to prove their claim.

[SpankMe]

7. Yeah, well...

Planned Parenthood receives federal funds and spends none of it on abortions. Funny how that doesn't fly with conservatives, but the NRA is perfectly capable of keeping these monies separate.

Hypocrisy very much?

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

8. " None Goes To Election Work"

Oh horseshit! C'mon. Only a complete idiot would swallow that.

[octoberlib]

9. Not according to the letter they sent Ron Wyden

Link to tweet

The @NRA acknowledged in a letter to me on March 19 that it maintains accounts with foreign donations that could fund political activities intended to sway the American political debate and influence campaigns.

[Botany]

10. So where did they get their $50.2 million they spent in 2016?

The gun rights group placed multimillion-dollar bets on Donald Trump and six Republican Senate candidates
locked in highly competitive races. It poured $50.2 million, or 96 percent of its total outside spending, into
these races, and lost only one — an open seat in Nevada, vacated by the Democratic Minority Leader, Harry
Reid. That race cost the NRA roughly $2.5 million.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/11/the-nra-placed-big-bets-on-the-2016-election-and-won-almost-all-of-them/

And thanx to citizen's united much of the NRA's spending is "dark money"
***********

Moreover, in the case of the NRA, the FBI is now investigating whether illicit funds were spent in support of Trump's political campaign. We have long warned that our broken system of campaign finance disclosure creates opportunities for foreign governments to illegally influence American elections, undetected.

The NRA is among the largest "dark money" organizations, reporting the greatest amount of campaign spending without revealing the source of the funds — over $35 million in the 2016 election cycle alone. Still, this amount was just a fraction of the over $175 million in reported campaign-related spending that came from unknown sources.

As these examples demonstrate, the Russia investigation is not just relevant to allegations of collusion, or even just to Russia. It is revealing a fundamental vulnerability in our political system — one that is being exploited by Russia, but that is also being exploited by others, foreign and domestic, who want to see American government serve their interests instead of the interests of the American public.



https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/nra-russia-and-trump-money-laundering-poisoning-us-democracy-commentary.html

[Corgigal]

11. And poor Muellers team says

please hand me a new brown folder. Thanks.

The never ending investigation goes on and on.

[cactusfractal]

12. So when Planned Parenthood gets government money...

...and the RWNJs insist that they're spending it on abortions, and PP says they don't, and the RWNJs say "Money is fungible! You can spend more on abortions because of this or that grant!"...

Bet they try to tell us THIS is different.