FBI Investigating NRA For Using Russian Money To Help Trump Win Election
A new report indicates that Russia infiltrated the NRA and funneled money through the organization to help Trump during the election.
The FBI is investigating whether Russia funneled money through the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the election, according to a new report by McClatchy.
The report notes that a high-level Russian banker Alexander Torshin, with close ties to Putin and the Kremlin, sent money to the NRA to help Trump in the election.
Torchin was described in a November report by NBC News as a “godfather” in a Russian organized crime syndicate known as Taganskaya.
Torchin is a lifelong member of the NRA and a top donor to the organization.
This is notable because the NRA spent $30 million during the 2016 election to help elect Donald Trump. That is triple what the NRA spent four years earlier to support Mitt Romney.
And according to the McClatchy report, the NRA’s actual spending may have been closer to $70 million in 2016.
According to the report, “Disclosure of the Torshin investigation signals a new dimension in the 18-month-old FBI probe of Russia’s interference. McClatchy reported a year ago that a multi-agency U.S. law enforcement and counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s 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.”
In May 2016, Torshin met with Donald Trump Jr. during a private dinner hosted by the NRA.
Read the full McClatchy report here.
[image via Creative Commons/Matt Johnson]
