Tag: NRA

Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina poised to plead guilty in case involving suspected Kremlin attempts to influence NRA

Maria Butina, 30, is accused of working to push the Kremlin’s agenda in the United States. Credit: Civic Chamber of the Russian Federationm, EPA-EFE, Shutterstock

Maria Butina, a Russian gun rights activist, is poised to plead guilty in a case involving accusations that she was working as an agent for the Kremlin in the United States, according to a new court filing.

Federal prosecutors and attorneys for Butina jointly requested in court documents Monday that U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan set a time for Butina to withdraw her previous plea of not guilty.

“The parties have resolved this matter,” Butina’s attorneys and D.C.-based prosecutors wrote in their joint filing.

View the complete December 10 article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Spencer S. Hsu on The Washington Post website here.

The NRA attacked doctors — and doctors shamed them for a week straight

Hospital employees and others attend an anti-gun violence rally in front of the Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center in New York, Thursday, July 6, 2017. Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam was fatally shot when Dr. Henry Bello opened fire at the hospital on June 30. Credit: Seth Wenig, AP Photo

The NRA tried to shut down doctors pushing for gun safety. It backfired and the gun extremists have been publicly shamed for their actions for a week and counting.

The NRA launched an attack on doctors, urging medical professionals to “stay in their lane” and not comment on gun violence. The ill-advised smear prompted outrage and for a week, doctors have been shaming and confronting the gun extremists by detailing why they deserve to be heard.

The public relations debacle is yet another black eye for the NRA, who has found itself on the losing end of the recent midterm elections and on the wrong side of history when it comes to supporting gun safety.

Responding to a position paper from the American College of Physicians recommending several gun safety remedies, the NRA tweeted, “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.”

View the complete November 14 article by Oliver Willis on the ShareBlue.com website here.

Voters all over America finally said no to the NRA

Credit: Mark Humphrey, AP Photo

The NRA has been a powerful force in elections. But on Tuesday, NRA-backed candidates who have refused to support gun safety went down in humiliating defeat.

Voters soundly rejected the NRA and the candidates carrying water for its anti-gun-safety agenda in 2018. The gun extremists refused to change course even after mass shootings claimed the lives of dozens of innocent Americans, and their candidates suffered because of it.

The NRA was already in something of a retreat before Election Day. They significantly reduced spending on the midterm elections, cutting their donations to Republican candidates.

It did not help the NRA that the FBI, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), and Senate investigators have opened up probes looking at the flow of Russian money to their bank accounts during the 2016 election. In that contest, the NRA gave $54 million to Republicans, with $32 million backing Trump.

View the complete November 9 article by Oliver Willis on the ShareBlue.com website here.

Wardlow Shows True Colors on Gun Safety, Reverses Support for Background Checks and Accepts NRA Donations

Ellison has been a longtime advocate for common sense gun safety reforms, and will support efforts to reduce gun violence as Attorney General

MINNESOTA – Congressman Keith Ellison and gun safety advocates today called out Republican Attorney General Candidate Doug Wardlow for flip-flopping in his support for criminal background checks on all gun sales in Minnesota. Not only has Wardlow lied about his support for this common sense provision, his latest campaign finance report reveals that he did so while accepting campaign donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

“While 90 percent of Minnesotans rightly support common sense gun safety measures like criminal background checks, Doug Wardlow backed down as soon as the gun lobby came calling,” said Ellison. “After the tragic events of this last weekend, Minnesotans understand better than ever the need to elect a strong advocate who will protect the safety of all Minnesotans as Attorney General.”

During the KSTP Attorney General debate last Sunday, Wardlow was asked whether he would support criminal background checks on all gun sales, to which he replied: “Yes I would.” Then, this past Saturday, on the same day as a tragic and deadly act of gun violence, Wardlow backed away from this position, saying that he “absolutely [does] not support background checks for private sales” and he “[does not] support any new gun laws.” Continue reading “Wardlow Shows True Colors on Gun Safety, Reverses Support for Background Checks and Accepts NRA Donations”

Paulsen fails voters again and again

To the editor:< Once again, Rep. Paulsen has put party politics and special interest groups ahead of the voters. It happened with recent tax reform, where the Ways & Means committee Erik serves on crafted legislation that reduced our state income tax/property tax deduction to $10,000 per year and largely eliminated many of us from sharing in any of the highly touted tax cuts. More importantly, those tax cuts were little more than a thinly veiled effort to buy our votes, and will add $1.5 trillion to the nation’s deficit. It happened when Erik ignored the overwhelming majority of voters in our district who favor meaningful gun control in favor of garnering an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association. I think it’s safe to assume that rating includes generous financial support from the NRA as well. Now it’s happened again, where thanks to federal legislation, over 300,000 senior citizens in Minnesota will lose their existing Medicare health plan supplement at the end of the year. For 2019, our choices include (1) paying an additional $1,000 per year to retain coverage that is comparable to our current plan, or (2) joining a program where coverage is diluted with costly co-pays, and our choice of doctors/providers is limited. In either case, seniors’ health insurance is taking a big step backwards. Some readers may suspect that my criticism is partisan. Fact is, I worked for Rep. Paulsen’s political campaign years ago helping with street signs and literature. I’ve also served as a delegate at the Minnesota Republican convention. But the bottom line is our political system is broken, and we’re badly in need of newly elected officials. Rep. Paulsen has demonstrated his constituents are no longer his priority. He’s had ample opportunity to serve – now it’s time for a change. Roddy Geckler, Edina Edina Sun-Current, October 18, 2018

Thoughts and prayers: The NRA is bleeding money

Revenue from membership dues has dropped by more than $25 million.

Credit: Getty Images

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has lost tens of millions of dollars in membership dues since the 2016 election and is more than $30 million in debt, according to an audit obtained by OpenSecrets.

The gun advocacy group previously alleged financial hardship in a lawsuit filed earlier this year, citing “serious difficulties obtaining corporate insurance” after Lockton dropped the NRA’s gun owner insurance.

The group is also facing a serious decline in revenue from its members, per the “new third-party audit of the group’s finances” acquired by OpenSecrets, which shows membership dues dropped by more than $25 million in 2017. After reporting $27.8 million in assets in 2015, the NRA is now $31.8 million in debt.

View the complete September 21 article by Frank Dale on the ThinkProgress website here.

Wife of Former N.R.A. President Tapped Accused Russian Agent in Pursuit of Jet Fuel Payday

The following article by Matthew Rosenberg, Michael LaForgia and Andrew E. Kramer was posted on the New York Times website September 2, 2018:

Maria Butina’s efforts to deal in Russian jet fuel were detailed in hundreds of pages of previously unreported emails. Credit: Press Service of Civic Chamber of The Russian Federation/EPA, via Shutterstock

WASHINGTON — For the young Russian gun rights activist studying in the United States, it would have been an unimaginably rich payday: $1 million to help broker the sale of Russian jet fuel to an American middleman. All she had to do was secure the fuel.

So the activist, Maria Butina, whom American prosecutors now accuse of being a covert Russian agent, reached out to contacts in her homeland — and turned on the charm. In a July 2017 email, she told one man that his passport photo was “a handsome one.”

The following month, she told another Russian contact that she had labeled him in her phone as “the lovely Shakhov.” Every time he called, she was notified that “‘the lovely Shakov is calling you,’” Ms. Butina wrote. “Good feelings.”

View the complete article here.

This email from accused Russian spy Maria Butina did not age well

The following article by Josh Israel was posted on the ThinkProgress website July 18, 2018:

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but there is no international conspiracy at work…”

Mariia Butina, leader of a pro-gun organization, at a press conference in Moscow. Credit:  STR/AFP, Getty Images

Maria Butina, the founder of the Russian equivalent of the National Rifle Association and a key ally of Vladimir Putin’s central bank deputy governor Alexander Torshin, was indicted on Tuesday on charges of conspiracyand for failure to registered as a foreign agent. According to the Department of Justice’s application for criminal complaint, Butina worked to “arrange introductions to U.S. persons having influence in American politics, including an organization promoting gun rights” and to “infiltrate those groups” to advance the Russian Federation’s agenda.

Nearly two years ago, ThinkProgress first reported on Butina and her group’s mysterious connections with the National Rifle Association and the 2016 elections. Experts at the time suggested that her connections with the Trump campaign and the gun-rights movement could be cover for a larger effort to undermine American sanctions against Russia. Among the connections noted were that Butina had somehow been able to ask Trump a question about trade with Russia at a Las Vegas campaign event and that her organization had helped pay to bring Trump surrogate and then-Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke to Moscow.

The arrangement caught the attention of federal prosecutors and Senate Democrats investigating the Putin regime’s meddling in the 2016 elections. The alleged ties were widely dismissed and mocked by conservatives.

View the complete article on the ThinkProgress website here.

Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina ordered to remain in custody after prosecutors argue she has ties to Russian intelligence

The following article by Tom Jackman and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website July 18, 2018:

The Russian woman arrested this week on charges of being a foreign agent has ties to Russian intelligence operatives and was in contact with them while in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Maria Butina, 29, also cultivated a “personal relationship” with an American Republican consultant as part of her cover and offered sex to at least one other person “in exchange for a position within a special interest organization,” according to a court filing.

After a hearing on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson denied Butina’s request to be released on bail, finding that no combination of conditions would ensure her return to court.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

‘She was like a novelty’: How alleged Russian agent Maria Butina gained access to elite conservative circles

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Shane Harris and Carol D. Leonnig was posted on the Washington Post website July 17, 2018:

Maria Butina, 29, founded a Russian group called the Right to Bear Arms. On July 16 she was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)

For nearly five years, the young Russian political-science student was an unusual fixture at the most important events of the U.S. conservative movement.

Maria Butina, who was indicted this week on charges of being a covert Russian agent, struck up friendships with the influential leaders of the National Rifle Association and the Conservative Political Action Conference, touting her interest in U.S. affairs and efforts to promote gun rights in Vladi­mir Putin’s restrictive Russia. She sidled up to GOP presidential candidates, seeking first an encounter with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and then, after his rising candidacy stumbled, with Donald Trump.

But by August 2016, when she moved to the United States on a student visa, the FBI was watching, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

View the complete post on the Washington Post website here.