Anyone Else Wondering If The Mueller Report Ties The NRA To The Kremlin's Efforts To Put Trump In The White House?

The NRA sent a letter begging its members to send money to rescue the organization's collapsing finances. Wayne LaPierre blames Andrew Cuomo, who is threatening the NRA's tax exempt status and has told New York state regulators to encourage insurance companies, banks and financial services companies to stop doing business with the NRA. This must have sounded sweet to many people when it got out: "Right now we’re facing an attack that’s unprecedented not just in the history of the NRA, but in the entire history of our country. And if this attack succeeds, NRA will be forced to shut down forever." New York's Attorney General, Letitia James, noted in an interview with Ebony that "The NRA holds [itself] out as a charitable organization, but in fact, [it] really [is] a terrorist organization."

The NRA's precipitous decline of income-- a $55 million deficit between 2016 and 2017-- is suspected to be related to a one-time money-laundering operation that saw at least $20 million of Russian money illegally used by the NRA to help the Trump campaign via one anonymous donor. At the same time, many patriotic Americans recognized that being part of the NRA means being part of Russia's attack on the American electoral system and membership income declined from $163 million to $128 million.

A letter to the FEC from 9 senators-- Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Kamala Harris (D-CA)-- is demanding an investigation of how the NRA uses shell companies together around election laws and flood elections with suspect money-- some of it from foreign sources.

Another reason we need to see the full Mueller Report is to be able to understand the relationship between the NRA and Kremlin operatives Alexander Torshin and Maria Butina, relationships that are also being investigated by the House Judiciary Committee. Butina is due to be sentenced April 26.

The House Judiciary Committee is on the case. The committee is looking to connect the dots between the $50 million the NRA spent helping Trump and his allies in the elections and the sources of that money. According to the L.A. Times, the committee asked the NRA to provide:

• Documents relating to development of the Republican platform for the election, including references to arming the Ukraine government in the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea.
• Attempts to provide or obtain a range of things tied to the election, including “voter data, polling information, political ad targeting, voter registration rolls, social media data, and campaign or party e-mails.”
• Discussion of U.S. sanctions against Russia between June 16, 2015, and Jan. 20, 2017, involving Trump or 14 other people (at least six of whom have been charged or pleaded guilty to federal charges arising from the Mueller probe-- sorry, “witch hunt”).

Meanwhile though, the NRA is still busy working with its Republican allies to continue enabling gun violence on every front. Last week OpenSecrets disclosed how the NRA is working with the GOP to defeat reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which expired in February. The bill would keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, a big no-no for the NRA, which is always a champion for domestic abusers. They vehemently oppose any and all regulations that lead to firearm confiscations over misdemeanor domestic violence or stalking convictions. The bill by Karen Bass (D-CA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) that the House is due to vote on is now opposed not just by the NRA but by GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP Whip Steve Scalise. The NRA and other pro-gun groups have shoveled $183,618 into Scalise's coffers-- the second most of any member of Congress (Don Young of Alaska is #1 at $185,672-- and the bribes to McCarthy have totaled $106,150. The only Democrat in that 6-figure bribery area is Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN). Most Democrats have stopped selling their asses to the NRA and other gun groups and, aside from Peterson, the only Dems who accepted NRA bribes in the 2018 cycle were Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA), Ron Kind (New Dem-WI), Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR), and Vicente Gonzalez (Blue Dog-TX).

H.R.1585, Bass and Fitzpatrick’s version of VAWA reauthorization, builds on Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s (D-TX) bill introduced last fall, prior to VAWA’s expiration. Her version allowed law enforcement officials to take weapons from domestic abusers who can’t legally own them.

Several organizations lobbied on the bill in 2018, including the NRA and gun control groups such as Giffords and Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

VAWA expired for two years, from 2011 to 2013, when Republican senators objected to new measures included in a reauthorization bill. The measure was the subject of heavy lobbying, with nearly 60 organizations lobbying on the bill before it passed. The NRA was not one of those groups.

The NRA has upped its lobbying efforts during the Donald Trump era, spending more than $10 million on lobbying between 2017 and 2018. However the “dark money” nonprofit has spent significantly less on independent expenditures to influence federal elections than in previous cycles as its revenue has continually declined.

The pull of the NRA and other gun rights organizations with Republicans will be tested as the Senate Judiciary Committee considers VAWA reauthorization and other gun-related laws. During a Tuesday committee hearing on red flag laws, Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said a new federal law should create an incentive for states to enact their own extreme risk protection laws that can lead to gun confiscation. His remarks drew harsh criticism from the National Association for Gun Rights.