NRA’s links with Russians probed
The National Rifle Association acted as a ‘‘foreign asset’’ for Russia in the runup to the 2016 US presidential election, and NRA insiders provided access to the American political system to advance personal business interests, a Democratic senator says in a new report.
The report by Oregon’s Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, also said NRA leaders may have violated tax laws that prohibit use of organisation resources for personal benefit. The NRA is a non-profit organisation.
‘‘During the 2016 election, Russian nationals effectively used the promise of lucrative personal business opportunities to capture the NRA and gain access to the American political system,’’ Wyden said.
The NRA called the report ‘‘politically motivated and contrived’’.
Based on an 18-month investigation by the committee’s Democratic staff, the report found that NRA leaders ‘‘engaged in a years-long effort to facilitate the USbased activities’’ of Russian nationals Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin.
Butina is serving 18 months in prison after admitting that she covertly gathered intelligence on the NRA and conservative activists at the direction of Torshin, a former Russian lawmaker.
The report also claims that NRA insiders may have violated US law by meeting with sanctioned Russian government officials and weapons manufacturers linked to the Kremlin in pursuit of personal business opportunities.
The NRA is engulfed in turmoil amid investigations of its finances, the ouster of top officials, and lawsuits involving a marketing firm that helped to shape its image as one of the most dominant forces in US politics.
The new revelations in the Senate report raise questions about whether the NRA could face civil penalties or lose its taxexempt status. The report focuses on a December 2015 trip to Moscow by a group of NRA leaders. The trip, led by Butina and Torshin, included a promise of meetings with top Russian officials and business leaders. The NRA paid some expenses for the trip.
Despite denials by NRA leaders, ‘‘this was an official trip undertaken so NRA insiders could get rich’’, Wyden said.