Похождения Бутиной

[tijd.livejournal.com]

NRA потратила на выборы Трампа рекордную сумму в $30 миллионов - в три раза больше, чем на Ромни в 2012, и в два раза больше, чем крупнейший индивидуальный донор - Роберт Мерсер. Ныне выясняется, что финансы организации дышат на ладан.

The National Rifle Association warns that it is in grave financial jeopardy, according to a recent court filing obtained by Rolling Stone, and that it could soon “be unable to exist… or pursue its advocacy mission.”
The reason, according to the NRA filing, is not its deep entanglement with alleged Russian agents like Maria Butina. Instead, the gun group has been suing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s financial regulators since May, claiming the NRA has been subject to a state-led “blacklisting campaign” that has inflicted “tens of millions of dollars in damages.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/nra-financial-trouble-706371/

Oh god, .@DavidCornDC is right! They really are Boris & Natasha! pic.twitter.com/VmqmNW74RS

— Speculawyer 🇳🇴-American (@speculawyer) August 4, 2018

Когда в начале мая скандально известного Оливера Норта внезапно назначили президентом NRA, это нарушило правила организации, согласно которым президент служит два срока, после чего его сменяет отслуживший два срока первый вице-президент. Публика об этом не знала, но за две недели до съезда NRA в Далласе с участием Трампа и Пенса, на котором Норт неожиданно для себя узнал, что будет президентом, сотрудники ФБР нагрянули с обыском к Марии Бутиной. Дэвид Корн из Mother Jones задается резонным вопросом: не связаны ли эти два события?

This development puzzled NRA watchers. North had not been in the line of succession. He was not prepared for the position and said he would need weeks before he could assume the post. Brownell was the first NRA president in a decade and a half not to seek a second term, and the first vice president, Richard Childress, was passed over. Childress claimed that because of his own commitments he could not even serve as interim president. That job went to the second vice president, Carolyn Meadows. The NRA had been known as an outfit with a strict hierarchy. But now all that was being thrown aside in what North called an “unexpected” and “sudden” action.
What wasn’t publicly known at the time was that on April 25—two weeks before this seemingly hasty NRA leadership makeover—FBI agents in tactical gear raided the apartment of Maria Butina, a 29-year-old Russian who three months later would be charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly serving as a secret agent for the Russian government in the United States.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/did-alleged-russian-spy-maria-butina-cause-a-leadership-shake-up-at-the-nra-1/

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