Schumer Statement On New Senate Finance Committee Report Detailing The NRA’s Relationship With Russia And New Evidence That NRA Potentially Violated U.S. Tax And Sanctions Laws

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer today released the following statement on Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) report stemming from an 18-month investigation into the NRA’s relationship with Russia and potential violations of U.S. tax and sanctions laws:

"The report from the Senate Finance Committee shows the NRA has been engaged in business activities and self-dealing that likely violate nonprofit rules under the tax code. The NRA has abused its tax-exempt status and essentially become a business enterprise that its board members and leadership use for lucrative personal business opportunities, including in Moscow. As the disturbing truth continues to surface, the NRA’s status as a tax exempt entity needs to be thoroughly investigated.”

Ranking Member Wyden’s new report, The NRA and Russia: How a Tax-Exempt Organization Became a Foreign Asset, reveals:

• New evidence that the 2015 delegation to Moscow was an official NRA trip meant to demonstrate Alexander Torshin’s American connections to the Kremlin, contrary to NRA statements that it was an unofficial trip organized by individuals merely interested in fostering gun rights in Russia.

• New evidence that NRA insiders exchanged access to the American political system for the promise of lucrative personal business opportunities.
   
• New evidence that the NRA may have violated tax laws that prohibit the use of any organization resources for personal benefit.

• New evidence that NRA insiders may have violated U.S. sanctions by meeting with sanctioned Russian government officials and state-linked weapons manufacturers in pursuit of personal business opportunities. In 2018, Senator Wyden asked Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to investigate whether some of the Russian weapons manufacturers the NRA delegation met with have evaded U.S. sanctions by abusing domestic shell companies. He is calling for Treasury to provide a response to his original request.

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