Posted on 07/02/2018 6:19:15 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Legal experts say it’s likely special counsel Robert Mueller secretly gained access to the National Rifle Association’s tax returns as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to a McClatchy report.
Mueller’s team is reportedly looking into NRA donors with links to Russia and investigating whether some donors used the organization to illegally funnel foreign money to President Trump’s campaign.
The NRA spent $30 million backing Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
NRA officials maintain that the organization has not been contacted by the FBI, but legal experts told McClatchy D.C. that it would be “routine” for investigators to access the group’s tax filings through the Internal Revenue Service.
The tax filings would reveal the NRA’s “dark money” donors, whose names are hidden on public documents.
David Axelrod, an Ohio lawyer who formerly prosecuted cases for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, told McClatchy D.C. that prosecutors often request tax filings “entirely in the background, with no notice to the subject of the investigation.”
Former senior Justice Department official Michael Zeldin told McClatchy that “it would be basic blocking and tackling for the prosecutors to seek all relevant tax returns.”
Mueller’s office declined to comment for McClatchy’s report.
The NRA disclosed in April that it received about $2,500 in contributions from 23 Russia-linked individuals since 2015. McClatchy reported earlier this year that the FBI was looking into whether one of those donors, Alexander Torshin, used the NRA to funnel money to the Trump campaign.
Torshin is a Russian politician and deputy of the country's central bank.
He has ties to former NRA President David Keene and hosted him for a pro-gun conference in Russia.
ETC...
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Exactly how does contributing to the NRA “funnel” money to anything. Do they accept directed donations?
So how does that matter? The NRA has nothing to hide.
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