The FBI is currently investigating whether the NRA accepted illegal money from a Kremlin-connected Russian banker in order to elect Donald Trump to the presidency.
The focus of the probe is on Alexander Torshin, who is deputy governor of Russia’s central bank and has close connections to both the NRA and President Vladimir Putin, according to McClatchy. If Torshin funneled money to the NRA to help elect Trump, that could constitute a crime — because it is illegal for Americans to use foreign money in their elections.
It is unclear how far the FBI has gotten into its investigation or what it has uncovered. It is also unclear whether they have proof of either Torshin sending money to the NRA or the NRA being aware of the illegality of any such funds winding up in its coffers.
The NRA spent three times as much money to elect Trump in the 2016 election, $30 million, than it did to try to elect Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. Most of the money spent by the NRA in 2016 was from an arm of the organization that was not legally required to disclose its donors.
The NRA has been under increasing criticism in recent years for its ideologically extreme agenda, one that it started adopting during the 1970s as the Reagan revolution began to rise.
"As the conservative movement has outsourced its thought leadership to the angry guy at the end of the bar, that's really the case when it comes to guns," Charles Sykes, author of "How The Right Lost Its Mind," told Salon in October. "And you cannot overstate the degree to which the Republican Party is in the thrall of the NRA or how radical and extreme the NRA has become in its rhetoric."
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