Thread by @arapaho415

1/ Unanswered question: Why was @SenRonJohnson part of the CODEL to the Kremlin🇷🇺 on July 4th🇺🇸🎇 (he appeared to be a last-minute addition)?
Could #NRA and #RussianRubles🇷🇺 convinced him to go?
Link to highly recommended article by @mikespiesnyc:

https://twitter.com/joshuamanning23/status/1017791032027537408

2/ In 2014, "To get its message out, the NRA turned to an unknown consulting firm, Starboard Strategic, paying it $19 million. More than a third of that money was invested in must-win Senate seats in Colorado, North Carolina and Arkansas..."

https://twitter.com/joshuamanning23/status/1017793860808790016

3/ Fast-forward to 2016:
Ron Johnson (R-WI) defended his Senate seat in 2016 by fewer than 100,000 votes:
👀
>Johnson's campaign paid OnMessage almost $4 million, but in stopped in August
>In October, the NRA stepped up, and paid Starboard nearly $200,000 for Johnson advertising

4/ @mikespiesnyc provides receipts that show Starboard as being a shell company for OnMessage.
The 8th Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled in May "using the name of a shell company to report the recipient of money spent by a political committee could violate a criminal statute...

5/ ... that prohibits the falsification of records to deceive a federal agency. Such a crime could result in a 20-year prison sentence." 😃

6/ Timeline for OnMessage, Inc.:

2005 Founded by brothers Curt and Wes Anderson, and Brad Todd

2010 FEC filings: OnMessage listed as a NRA vendor
NRA paid OnMessage $3.19 million for ads supporting GOP Senate candidates Roy Blunt and Patrick Toomey (among others)

(con't)

7/ OnMessage, Inc. 2012:

NRA paid OnMessage $11.25 million (NRA’s top federal election vendor by more than $5 million)

During 2010 and 2012, OnMessage never produced ads in races where it was working for the NRA

(con't)

8/ OnMessage/Starboard, 2013:

Jan:
Co-founder of OnMessage Wes Anderson registers starboardstrategicinc.com+
(some language nearly identical on each website)

Mar:
Starboard Strategic incorporated by OnMessage partners. OnMessage would never again appear in NRA’s FEC reports.👀

9/
2014:
NRA pays Starboard millions of dollars for ads supporting Tillis, Gardner and Cotton. In the same period, money flowed from these candidates to OnMessage.

2016:
NRA pays Starboard $40 million (75% of total independent spending for 2016, which was nearly $53 million).

10/ Circling back to the question of why it seems @SenRonJohnson was a last-minute add to Kremlin🇷🇺 CODEL. He wasn't on the Kremlin🇷🇺 CODEL list on June 27:

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1012140873289748481

11/ Except for @SenRonJohnson and @SenJohnThune, all Kremlin🇷🇺 CODEL participants were members/heads of Congressional Appropriations Committee (@RepKayGranger [TX12] is Chair of House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee).

12/EOT Except for @SenRonJohnson, all other participants in the Kremlin🇷🇺CODEL are states which would be (are) involved with TransCanada's🇨🇦 KXL pipeline.🤔
Source: Wikipedia