by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Early last week federal prosecutors filed charges against a Russian national who was residing in the United States, accusing the woman, Maria (Mariia) Butina, with conspiracy and operating as an undeclared foreign agent on American soil. The feds apparently have such a solid case against the attractive 29-year-old that she was denied bail because they feared she would hightail it home to Mother Russia.
And they are probably right. Putin's Russia is not the least bit happy with this young Russian asset being behind bars. There is no word yet on the possibility of a presidential pardon.
According to a report in Rolling Stone as well as other news sources, Miss Butina founded a gun rights group in Russia and developed strong ties to the National Rifle Association here in the United States. It is thought that she was instrumental in funneling large amounts of Russian cash to the NRA for that group to use in helping Republican political candidates.
The NRA contributed in the neighborhood of $30 million to the Trump election effort in 2016 - $11,000,000 in direct aid to the Trump campaign, and $19,000,000 in efforts to undermine the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. It is unclear if any money from Russia was included in those donations. One reason that it is unclear is that on the same day of Ms. Butina's arrest, the U.S. Treasury Department issued new rules which allow the NRA to keep the source of some of its dark money donors secret.
It is now been revealed that Maria Butina and her handler, a Russian government official named Alexander Torshin, had met privately with representatives of the U.S. Treasury Department earlier this year. Butina and Torshin also attended an NRA convention together and facilitated ties between that group and the Russian government of Vladimir Putin.
So did Russian rubles make it into the campaign coffers of Donald Trump. Rolling Stone would like to know. Vanity Fair would like to know. And the American public needs to know.
But the trail of rubles may not end with Donald Trump. The NRA is notorious in its monetary support of chosen candidates - nearly always Republicans. Aside from Donald Trump, the top sixteen political recipients of NRA cash are all sitting Republican senators. What follows are lifetime totals for NRA donations as reported in Business Insider on February 28th of this year - two weeks after the horrific shooting at the high school in Parkland, Florida.
John McCain of Arizona ($7,740,521), Richard Burr of North Carolina (6,986,931), Roy Blunt of Missouri (4,551,546), Thom Tillis of North Carolina (4,418,012), Cory Gardner of Colorado (3,879,064), Marco Rubio of Florida (3,303,355), Joni Ernst of Iowa (3,124,273), Rob Portman of Ohio (3,061,941), Todd Young of Indiana (2,896,732), Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (2,861,047), David Perdue of Georgia (1,985,773), Tom Cotton of Arkansas. (1,968,714), Pat Roberts of Kansas (1,584,153), Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania (1,467,821), Ron Johnson of Wisconsin (1,269,486), and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (1,261,874).
(Please don't loose any sleep over Mitch McConnell just placing 16th. He is primarily bought and paid for by the tobacco lobby, a powerhouse in his home state of Kentucky.)
Number 17 on the list of NRA sycophants is Congressman French Hill of Arkansas ($1,089,477). All other Republican members of the Senate and the House have to get by on six-figure NRA donations - or less.
It is unclear how much of this corruption of democracy is the result of Russian money being laundered through the National Rifle Association, and now, of course, with the new rule from the Treasury Department, the American public may never know the extent of their senators' and representatives' indebtedness to the Kremlin.
These elected leaders who each have their pockets stuffed with NRA dollars - and possibly Russian rubles - have no sense of shame, so we must all endeavor to be ashamed for them. Our democracy has been sold - possibly to buyers abroad. Dark money portends dark times.
Citizen Journalist
Early last week federal prosecutors filed charges against a Russian national who was residing in the United States, accusing the woman, Maria (Mariia) Butina, with conspiracy and operating as an undeclared foreign agent on American soil. The feds apparently have such a solid case against the attractive 29-year-old that she was denied bail because they feared she would hightail it home to Mother Russia.
And they are probably right. Putin's Russia is not the least bit happy with this young Russian asset being behind bars. There is no word yet on the possibility of a presidential pardon.
According to a report in Rolling Stone as well as other news sources, Miss Butina founded a gun rights group in Russia and developed strong ties to the National Rifle Association here in the United States. It is thought that she was instrumental in funneling large amounts of Russian cash to the NRA for that group to use in helping Republican political candidates.
The NRA contributed in the neighborhood of $30 million to the Trump election effort in 2016 - $11,000,000 in direct aid to the Trump campaign, and $19,000,000 in efforts to undermine the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. It is unclear if any money from Russia was included in those donations. One reason that it is unclear is that on the same day of Ms. Butina's arrest, the U.S. Treasury Department issued new rules which allow the NRA to keep the source of some of its dark money donors secret.
It is now been revealed that Maria Butina and her handler, a Russian government official named Alexander Torshin, had met privately with representatives of the U.S. Treasury Department earlier this year. Butina and Torshin also attended an NRA convention together and facilitated ties between that group and the Russian government of Vladimir Putin.
So did Russian rubles make it into the campaign coffers of Donald Trump. Rolling Stone would like to know. Vanity Fair would like to know. And the American public needs to know.
But the trail of rubles may not end with Donald Trump. The NRA is notorious in its monetary support of chosen candidates - nearly always Republicans. Aside from Donald Trump, the top sixteen political recipients of NRA cash are all sitting Republican senators. What follows are lifetime totals for NRA donations as reported in Business Insider on February 28th of this year - two weeks after the horrific shooting at the high school in Parkland, Florida.
John McCain of Arizona ($7,740,521), Richard Burr of North Carolina (6,986,931), Roy Blunt of Missouri (4,551,546), Thom Tillis of North Carolina (4,418,012), Cory Gardner of Colorado (3,879,064), Marco Rubio of Florida (3,303,355), Joni Ernst of Iowa (3,124,273), Rob Portman of Ohio (3,061,941), Todd Young of Indiana (2,896,732), Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (2,861,047), David Perdue of Georgia (1,985,773), Tom Cotton of Arkansas. (1,968,714), Pat Roberts of Kansas (1,584,153), Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania (1,467,821), Ron Johnson of Wisconsin (1,269,486), and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (1,261,874).
(Please don't loose any sleep over Mitch McConnell just placing 16th. He is primarily bought and paid for by the tobacco lobby, a powerhouse in his home state of Kentucky.)
Number 17 on the list of NRA sycophants is Congressman French Hill of Arkansas ($1,089,477). All other Republican members of the Senate and the House have to get by on six-figure NRA donations - or less.
It is unclear how much of this corruption of democracy is the result of Russian money being laundered through the National Rifle Association, and now, of course, with the new rule from the Treasury Department, the American public may never know the extent of their senators' and representatives' indebtedness to the Kremlin.
These elected leaders who each have their pockets stuffed with NRA dollars - and possibly Russian rubles - have no sense of shame, so we must all endeavor to be ashamed for them. Our democracy has been sold - possibly to buyers abroad. Dark money portends dark times.
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