General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBreaking : Web of elite Russians met with NRA execs during 2016 campaign
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/article212756749.htmlLink to tweet
WASHINGTON
Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putins inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, according to photographs and an NRA source.
The contacts have emerged amid a deepening Justice Department investigation into whether Russian banker and lifetime NRA member Alexander Torshin illegally channeled money through the gun rights group to add financial firepower to Donald Trumps 2016 presidential bid.
Other influential Russians who met with NRA representatives during the campaign include Dmitry Rogozin, who until last month served as a deputy prime minister overseeing Russias defense industry, and Sergei Rudov, head of one of Russias largest philanthropies, the St. Basil the Great Charitable Foundation. The foundation was launched by an ultra-nationalist ally of Russian President Putin.
The Russians talked and dined with NRA representatives, mainly in Moscow, as U.S. presidential candidates vied for the White House. Now U.S. investigators want to know if relationships between the Russian leaders and the nations largest gun rights group went beyond vodka toasts and gun factory tours, evolving into another facet of the Kremlins broad election-interference operation.
.....................
Now why are Russians meeting with the NRA at all is the question?
This is all going back to radical evangelicals taking over the WH with the nazi's.
nmgaucho
(527 posts)The NRA needs to go
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)Sneederbunk
(14,292 posts)It's all coming together now.
mikeysnot
(4,757 posts)or willful participants....
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Fascism, Western-style, demands a cross be carried along with the xenophobia and lies.
triron
(22,007 posts)spanone
(135,846 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,611 posts)for a dozen years. This is incredibly extensive.
oasis
(49,392 posts)That's what we're up against.
Le Gaucher
(1,547 posts)Everything you need to know about NRA
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)when everyday russians aren't allowed to own guns. Why would the NRA even be there? Who benefits?
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)I really hate russia. When are the russian people going to stand up and overthrow this guy? Life for them, is what America will have in 10 years or so.
underpants
(182,837 posts)LakeArenal
(28,823 posts)We are scraping the scum up. And the biggest scum deposit is the NRA.
Oneironaut
(5,505 posts)Tribalceltic
(1,000 posts)asking for a friend...
bluedigger
(17,086 posts)More proof of Trump's lack of influence with the Russians. Witch hunt!
Response to sunonmars (Original post)
jayschool2013 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Initech
(100,081 posts)I swear they were all in on it!
RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)Guns God and Russia GOP love Putin
The NRA Placed Big Bets on the 2016 Election, and Won Almost All of Them
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/11/the-nra-placed-big-bets-on-the-2016-election-and-won-almost-all-of-them/
Ted Lieu: Story of Link Between Kremlin And NRA Could Get Bigger
Follow the money, Rep. Ted Lieu said of the National Rifle Associations pro-Trump efforts.
Last Thursday, investigative reporters Peter Stone and Greg Gordon of McClatchy DC Bureau reported what could be another bombshell in the Russia probe: that the FBI is investigating whether a Kremlin-linked banker illegally channeled funds to the National Rifle Association to aid Donald Trumps presidential campaign.
On Friday, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, told me on SiriusXM Progress that the word on Capitol Hill is that the story of a Russia-NRA-Trump link is going to grow.
FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russias central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, Stone and Gordon reported being told by two sources familiar with the matter.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ted-lieu-russia-nra_us_5a64f350e4b0dc592a09dfab
Muellers Probe Is Dangerously Close to a Republican Red Line https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/01/donald-trump-robert-mueller-nra
According to McClatchy D.C., the F.B.I. is investigating whether a top Russian banker with close ties to President Vladimir Putin illegally channeled money through the N.R.A. to bolster Trumps bid for the White House. The revelation that the special prosecutor might target the gun lobby, arguably the most influential and sacrosanct faction of the Republican Party, could embolden G.O.P. lawmakers to bring a swift end to the Trump-Russia probe and hasten a Mueller ouster. (The N.R.A. did not immediately respond to the outlets request for comment.)
... It is unclear when Muellers team opened its inquiry, what stage the investigation has reached, or to what extent the F.B.I. can substantiate the money trail. But of the $55 million the N.R.A. spent on the 2016 election, a staggering $30 million was shelled out to the Trump campaignthree times the amount it spent on Mitt Romney in 2012, McClatchy reports.
... As The New York Times reported in December, Erickson sent a May 2016 e-mail to Trump campaign adviser Rick Dearborn with the subject line Kremlin Connection. In the e-mail, Erickson reportedly asked Dearborn, and then Senator Jeff Sessions, for advice in setting up a meeting between Trump and Putin and sought to use the annual N.R.A. convention in Kentucky that year to make first contact. (Erickson could not be reached by the Times for comment.) While Erickson did not explicitly name Torshin, sources familiar with the situation who spoke to the Times said that the message appeared to refer to the Russian banker.
NRA's Ties To Putin Allies Go Back Years
By Sam Thielman at Talking Points Memo
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/nras-ties-to-putin-allies-go-back-years
Here, in chronological order, is what we know on the NRAs Russian ties:
2011: According to the Washington Post, G. Kline Preston, a lawyer in Nashville, Tenn. with a specialty in Russian affairs, introduces Torshin to David Keene, at the time the president of the NRA and a former head of the American Conservative Union. Torshin,then a senator in the Duma from Putins United Russia party, was friends with Mikhail Kalashnikov, the revered inventor of the AK-47. Preston, who did not return TPMs request for comment, told the Post that the value system of Southern Christians and the value system of Russians are very much in line.
November 2012: At Prestons invitation, Torshin observes the 2012 U.S. elections. Preston told the Post the two men saw violations of U.S. law in the form of Obama signs too close to a polling place. Preston had served as an international observer of the 2011 legislative elections in Russia, and reported that they were fair a conclusion at odds with that of many international observers.
May 2013: Torshin attends the NRA convention in Houston, where conservative players Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, John Bolton, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, and Rick Perry address one of the most important blocs in the Republican base.
Summer 2013: According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, Torshin is set to attend a birthday party on the Spanish island of Mallorca for Alexander Romanov, a member of the Moscow-based Taganskaya gang. Torshin, El Pais reported, is believed to be the Taganskaya boss. Twelve Spanish police officers wait for him at the airport and the hotel where he would have stayed, ready to arrest him in connection with money allegedly laundered to buy a hotel in the Spanish vacation spot. But, the newspaper reported, a Russian prosecutor tips Torshin off at the last moment, and he never shows up.
(really long)
The Trump-Russia-NRA Connection: Here's What You Need to Know
Did a shadowy Russian banker close to Vladimir Putin illegally give money to the National Rifle Association to support the presidential campaign of Donald Trump? That's the subject of an active FBI investigation, according to an explosive report by McClatchy.
Here's what you need to know:
Unprecedented Trump Support
The National Rifle Association spent tens of millions of dollars backing Trump's presidential bid in 2016. The NRA endorsed Trump in May 2016. And the NRA disclosed it spent at least $30 million on Trump's behalf and attacking Hillary Clinton. That level of support is unprecedented more than twice what the NRA disclosed it spent on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential run.
The true sum the NRA spent to install Trump in the White House may be far higher. Campaign finance disclosures do not cover spending on unregulated Internet advertising or voter mobilization; citing two sources close to the gun group, McClatchy suggests the NRA may have spent upwards of $70 million on Trump's presidential bid.
President Trump is clearly indebted: "You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you," Trump promised the NRA at its 2017 convention. "I will never, ever let you down."
Dark Money
In the age of Citizens United and unlimited campaign donations, the NRA has emerged as an important "dark money" hub in Republican politics. Under its tax code designation, the NRA is a "social welfare" organization, largely exempt from disclosing its donors. To skirt disclosure, other big-dollar political players including a SuperPAC linked to Karl Rove and a "chamber of commerce" controlled by the Koch Brothers have routinely steered money into the NRA, confident that the gun group's spending will advance the GOP cause.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-trump-russia-nra-connection-heres-what-you-need-to-know-w515615
20:24 1/18/2018
FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump
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, two sources familiar with the matter have told McClatchy.
FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russias central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said.
It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections.
.... Disclosure of the Torshin investigation signals a new dimension in the 18-month-old FBI probe of Russias interference. McClatchy reported a year ago that a multi-agency U.S. law enforcement and counterintelligence investigation into Russias intervention, begun even before the start of the 2016 general election campaign, initially included a focus on whether the Kremlin secretly helped fund efforts to boost Trump, but little has been said about that possibility in recent months.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article195231139.html
Senate Report Outlines Playbook to Prevent Future Russian Election Meddling
Conspicuously absent from the report, however, is Republican buy-in.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/10/senate-report-outlines-playbook-to-prevent-future-russian-election-meddling-trump-elections-congress-europe-putin-senator-cardin-democrats-nato-european-union/
Btw, this is also a big, aggressive political move against the Republicans as more and more of their entanglements with Russia are being uncovered.
triron
(22,007 posts)47of74
(18,470 posts)But as far as Im concerned the Russian Orthodox Church is no longer a church. Its an intelligence organization for the Russian government.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,748 posts)It's not illegal for foreigners to donate money to private organizations, so they were laundering campaign contributions to the GOP/Trump from the Russians.