THREAD: Today we learned that the FBI is investigating connections between the NRA, Russia, and the Trump campaign. For folks paying attention, it’s been clear since 2016 that something was a bit off.
In August of 2016, Trump’s rhetoric & behavior caused reliable GOP donors to abandon his campaign, but the NRA *increased* their investment, dropping $3 million on a pro-Trump ad buy.
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In fact, the NRA spent more on Trump’s 2016 campaign than Trump’s own super PACs. It was the most the NRA has ever spent in an election cycle.
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And the $30 million that the NRA spent on Trump might only be the tip of the iceberg -- reporting from @McClatchyDC suggests the NRA may have spent as much as $70 million to elect Trump and NRA allies, and some of it might have come from Russia. amp.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-wo…
The money isn’t the only peculiarity. Trump tried to hire David Clarke, an NRA spokesperson who had traveled to Russia on a trip partially paid for by an NRA executive and a Russian pro-gun group.
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And Jared Kushner failed to disclose a proposed meeting from lifetime NRA member, Alexander Torshin. Torshin chose the NRA convention to try to orchestrate a face to face meeting with candidate Trump in order to facilitate a meeting between Trump & Putin.
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To top it all off, when the media started to report on connections between Trump and Russia, the NRA bizarrely jumped into the conversation and went on the defensive.
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There are a lot of open questions about the relationship between the NRA, the Trump campaign, and Russia, but one thing is clear: It’s time for the @NRA to come clean.
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URGENT THREAD: A few days from now, *anyone* with a regular internet connection and a 3D printer will be able to make their own untraceable guns in just a couple clicks. This includes terrorists and people who can’t pass a background check.
Incomprehensibly, the Trump @StateDept is about to allow a company run by a self-proclaimed anarchist to post its gun blueprints online in files that can be sent directly to a 3D printer to print guns on demand. wired.com/story/a-landma…
To add more danger to this situation, many of these guns can be printed entirely in plastic, so metal detectors won’t catch them. These plastic guns could easily be snuck onto airplanes, into music festivals and government buildings.
THREAD: While we wait for the NRA to come clean about its connections to alleged Russian agent Maria Butina, let’s take a trip down memory lane and explore the twisted web of ties between Butina, the NRA, and prominent GOP operatives.
In 2011, then-NRA president David Keene befriended Russian banker & politician Alexander Torshin. Shortly thereafter, Torshin joined with Maria Butina to form a Russian gun rights group supposedly modeled after the NRA called the Right to Bear Arms. newrepublic.com/article/110223…
In 2013, Butina’s gun rights group hosted Keene and NRA-linked Republican operative Paul Erickson at the Right to Bear Arms’ annual convention in Moscow. rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
THREAD: Meet Maria Butina, the lifetime NRA member and Russian national charged with being a spy.
Butina is a Russian gun rights activist with close ties to Russian politicians, who for years has cultivated close relationships with American Republican operatives and the NRA.
She's attended multiple NRA conventions with Putin ally and lifetime NRA member, Alexander Torshin. motherjones.com/politics/2018/…