—
You know how the FBI is investigating the ties between the NRA and Russian Money — here is some of the background details on that reported “Kremlin-NRA Connection” ...
Bloomberg News; National Post — August 9, 2016
A former senator in Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party directed dirty-money flows for mobsters in Moscow before he was named a deputy head of the central bank last year, according to investigators in Spain.
Alexander Torshin instructed members of the Moscow-based Taganskaya crime syndicate how to launder ill-gotten gains through banks and properties in Spain while he was a deputy speaker of the upper house of parliament, the Spanish Civil Guard said in a confidential report, seen by Bloomberg, on a three-year probe that ended in 2013. [...]
The allegations related to Torshin in the Civil Guard report are based on recordings made of phone conversations he had with Romanov in 2012 and 2013, as well as documents seized during a raid on a villa on the island of Majorca that Romanov owned at the time. [...]
snopes.com, by Bethania Palma — Feb 18, 2018
[...]
According to an 18 January 2018 McClatchy D.C. Bureau report, the FBI is investigating allegations that Alexander Torshin, an official at the Central Bank of the Russia and life member of the NRA, funneled money through the gun lobby group to the Trump campaign. [...]
McClatchy added that the NRA spent record amounts of money supporting candidates in the 2016, most of which went to the Trump campaign:
The extent to which the FBI has evidence of money flowing from Torshin to the NRA, or of the NRA’s participation in the transfer of funds, could not be learned.
However, the NRA reported spending a record $55 million on the 2016 elections, including $30 million to support Trump – triple what the group devoted to backing Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. Most of that was money was spent by an arm of the NRA that is not required to disclose its donors.
Two people with close connections to the powerful gun lobby said its total election spending actually approached or exceeded $70 million. The reporting gap could be explained by the fact that independent groups are not required to reveal how much they spend on Internet ads or field operations, including get-out-the-vote efforts.
[...]
by Ilya Arkhipov and Evgenia Pismennaya, Bloomberg — April 5, 2017
[...]
[Alexander] Torshin declined to elaborate on his trip, saying only that he’s been to the annual event 12 times [National Prayer Breakfast]. In an interview with Bloomberg last year, the gun enthusiast said he’s known Trump for five years and the two men last had a jovial exchange at the National Rifle Association convention in Tennessee in 2015, just before the future president announced his run for the White House.
“Trump said, ‘So, you’re from Russia -- when are you going to invade Latvia?”’ Torshin said in the interview, adding that he assured Trump that Putin had no such designs on the former Soviet republic, which is a member of both the European Union and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.
Did the Kremlin funnel payments to help Trump's campaign through the National Rifle Association?
by Tim Dickinson, rollingstone.com — Jan 18, 2018
[...]
Trump Connections
At the May 2016 NRA convention in Louisville, Kentucky, where Donald Trump accepted the group's endorsement, Torshin shared a table at dinner with the candidate's son Donald Jr. According to Bloomberg, Torshin claimed to also have met now-president Trump at the convention, and that: "He keeps photos of the event on his computer tablet."
The 2016 NRA convention came off just as Russians were actively seeking contact with the Trump campaign – just weeks earlier, a Russian conduit told Trump staffer George Papadopoulos that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, including thousands of her emails. – and hoping to set up a meeting with Trump and Putin.
According to the New York Times, Torshin tried to set up a dinner meeting in Louisville at the time of the NRA convention with then-candidate Trump – with the aim of connecting Trump with Putin. The request was conveyed through a Trump ally in the Christian conservative world, who reportedly sent the campaign an email with the subject line: "Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite." (Trump did not attend that dinner.)
Separately, an NRA member, Paul Erickson – who had been part of the 2015 NRA delegation to Moscow – wrote an email titled, “Kremlin Connection," to Trump campaign adviser Rick Dearborn, according to the New York Times. Erickson reportedly told the campaign that Russia was "quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S." and would be seeking "first contact" at the NRA convention.
[...]
Wyden demands documents on possible links between Russian money and NRA
CBS News — Feb 2, 2018
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OpenSecrets.org — National Rifle Assn — Cycle 2016
[NRA] Affiliates
OpenSecrets.org — National Rifle Assn — Cycle 2018
[NRA] Affiliates
The Deep-pockets “undisclosed donors” must be hedging their 501c bets, this time around for 2018.
That or the filing deadlines have yet to arrive.
—
OpenSecrets.org — Donors to NRA Institute for Legislative Action (501c) — Cycle 2016
Donor Filing Date Amount Recipient
Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce
|
12/31/14 |
$4,895,000 |
NRA Institute for Legislative Action (04) |
Politically active non-profit organizations are not required under current law to disclose the names of businesses, organizations and individuals who provide their funds. However, 501(c) non-profit organizations are required to disclose their contributions to other organizations [...]
OpenSecrets.org — Freedom Partners Action Fund — Cycle 2016
Contrib |
Occupation |
Date |
Amount |
CHARLES G KOCH 1997 TRUST
WICHITA, KS 67201 |
KOCH INDUSTRIES INC. |
12/23/15 |
$3,000,000 |
KOCH, CHARLES MR
WICHITA, KS 67201 |
KOCH INDUSTRIES INC. |
05/24/16 |
$3,000,000 |
MOUNTAIRE CORPORATION
LITTLE ROCK, AR 72221 |
|
05/13/16 |
$2,000,000 |
HENDRICKS, DIANE MS
AFTON, WI 53501 |
HENDRICKS HOLDING CO. INC. |
05/13/16 |
$2,000,000 |
GRIFFIN, KENNETH C MR
CHICAGO, IL 60603 |
CITADEL |
11/24/15 |
$2,000,000 |
HENDRICKS, DIANE MS
AFTON, WI 53501 |
HENDRICKS HOLDING CO. INC. |
11/18/15 |
$2,000,000 |
FOSTER, PAUL L MR
EL PASO, TX 79901 |
WESTERN REFINING |
10/27/15 |
$1,000,000 |
GILLIAM, RICHARD B MR
KESWICK, VA 22947 |
CUMBERLAND DEVELOPMENT |
10/20/15 |
$1,000,000 |
GILLIAM, RICHARD B MR
KESWICK, VA 22947 |
CUMBERLAND DEVELOPMENT |
05/24/16 |
$1,000,000 |
SINGER, PAUL MR
NEW YORK, NY 10019 |
ELLIOTT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION |
07/26/16 |
$1,000,000 |
MOUNTAIRE CORPORATION
LITTLE ROCK, AR 72221 |
|
08/04/16 |
$1,000,000 |
GILLIAM, LESLIE F MRS
KESWICK, VA 22947 |
CUMBERLAND DEVELOPMENT |
08/25/16 |
$500,000 |
DEVOS, HELEN MRS
GRAND RAPIDS, MI 49503 |
HOMEMAKER |
06/10/16 |
$500,000 |
DEVOS, RICHARD M MR
GRAND RAPIDS, MI 49503 |
RETIRED |
06/10/16 |
$500,000 |
LAUFER, WAYNE L MR
SANIBEL, FL 33957 |
RETIRED |
06/06/16 |
$500,000 |
LAUFER, WAYNE L MR
SANIBEL, FL 33957 |
RETIRED |
10/06/15 |
$500,000 |
CAMERON, RONALD M MR
LITTLE ROCK, AR 72221 |
MOUNTAIRE CORP. |
10/31/16 |
$500,000 |
[… pages more ...]
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Linda Biegel Schulman, somehow found the strength to attend CNN’s town hall and confront NRA spokesperson:
The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776, which gave my son the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So I ask you, why are my son's unalienable rights not protected as fiercely as the right to bear arms?
Somehow I don’t think this is the “kind of freedom” that the “NRA Freedom Partners” have in mind.
To the NRA, Dead People ‘have no more rights’ … “they should have armed themselves, when they had the chance.”
—
To Vladimir Putin,
there’s more than one way
to foment chaos in a society.
‘Alexander, why don’t you write another check, to our friends in America?
They’re gonna need it.’