mashburn, john
=<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div>https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/ukraine-gop-platform-gordon.html</div><div>
</div><div>Throughout the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, questions have swirled around an odd change the campaign pushed for in the Republican platform at the party’s 2016 convention in Cleveland. As the Washington Post originally reported shortly after the convention, Trump campaign representatives pushed to water down language in the platform about “providing lethal defensive weapons” to the government of Ukraine for its fight against pro-Russian separatists. Given then–campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s financial ties to pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, that raised some eyebrows. Was the platform move part of a quid pro quo, or a demonstration of good faith to Trump’s allies in Moscow?</div><div>
</div><div>On this particular question, the just-released Mueller report is mostly good news for Trump. Investigators found no evidence that the president ordered or was even aware of the change to the platform language. But it does highlight the degree to which Trumpworld officials with questionable motives were engaged in freelance policymaking during this period.</div><div>
</div><div>The report mostly confirms what has been reported by the Post and later the Daily Beast about the incident. At a meeting of the national security platform subcommittee shortly before the convention, on July 11, 2016, Diana Denman, a Ted Cruz–supporting delegate, submitted an amendment to the platform denouncing Russian military aggression in Ukraine and calling for the provision of lethal weapons, a step the Obama administration was then opposing.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>J.D. Gordon, a former Pentagon spokesman who was then a national security adviser to the Trump campaign and attended the meeting as a non-voting observer, flagged the amendment, saying he did not believe it corresponded with Trump’s views on Russia and Ukraine.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Denman says Gordon told her during the meeting that he was on the phone with Trump himself, but she was skeptical of this claim, and Gordon denies ever making it. Trump told the Mueller team he did not speak with Gordon about the matter, though <b>phone records show Gordon called Jeff Sessions’ office that day</b>.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Gordon does say he talked to senior Trump advisers Rick Dearborn and John Mashburn</span>, and here’s where things get odd: Gordon says the two backed him up, but <b>Mashburn remembers telling Gordon that Trump hadn’t taken a stand on the issue and that the campaign shouldn’t interfere.</b> With this one notable exception, Trump campaign observers mostly held back and didn’t offer any substantive input during the platform-drafting process.</div><div>
</div><div><b>In the end, the language in the amendment was softened to “appropriate assistance,” which led Mashburn to believe, as the Mueller report puts it, that “Gordon had violated Mashburn’s directive not to intervene.</b>” Then-campaign co-chair Sam Clovis also told investigators that he was surprised by the change and did not believe it accorded with Trump’s views. (In fairness, Trump’s stated views on Ukraine, at that time, were a little vague and hard to parse.)</div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/trump-russia-investigation-ties/">https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/trump-russia-investigation-ties/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/trump-russia-investigation-ties/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">infographic</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">nra mojo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">May 2016: In an email to Trump campaign aide Rick Dearborn, with the subject line “Kremlin Connection,”</span><b times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> Erickson says Russia is “quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.” and proposes using the NRA convention to set up “first contact” with the Trump team</b><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">. According to a New York Times report, Erickson writes that he’s in a position to “slowly begin c</span><b times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">ultivating a back-channel to President Putin’s Kremlin</b><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">.” The email doesn’t name Torshin but appears to reference him as “President Putin’s emissary” who planned to attend a dinner hosted by <b>conservative Christian activist Rick Clay</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Meanwhile, Clay sends an email to Dearborn with the subject line “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” seeking a meeting between Trump and Torshin. Dearborn forwards Clay’s email to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who reportedly nixes the proposal.</span></span></font></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">also mashburn on rnc platform change:</font></span></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dearborn</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and </span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mashburn</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> were also the recipients of phone calls made by campaign foreign policy aide J.D. Gordon as delegates to the </span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Republican</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> National Convention were debating what the party's </span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">platform</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> on Ukraine should be. The party ultimately elected to adopt language that endorsed providing ...</span></font></span></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div><div>bipartisan leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday released a request that the Trump campaign provide emails from campaign aides John Mashburn and Rick Dearborn.</div><div>
</div><div>Dearborn, a former chief of staff of then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, went on to lead the Trump transition team and served for about a year in the White House. Mashburn was the Trump campaign’s policy director, and is currently the White House’s Deputy Cabinet Secretary.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>“We are writing today because we believe information obtained in a recent Committee interview warrants expanding those searches to two additional custodians who were not included in the original effort, John Mashburn and Rick Dearborn,” Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wrote in a letter dated Tuesday. “Doing so will help ensure the Campaign’s production fully responds to the categories of documents sought in the Committee’s initial letter.”</div><div>
</div><div>The letter follows an earlier request for information sent by the senators to the Trump campaign last July, seeking emails from an assortment of other campaign officials.</div><div>
</div><div>“The Campaign has since provided over 28,000 pages of responsive documents, as well as letters detailing the 21 campaign custodians whose emails were searched and the more than 300 search terms used,” the senators noted in their Tuesday letter.</div><div>
</div><div>Dearborn’s name has appeared in reports about connections between the National Rifle Association, Russia and Trump associates. Dearborn was sent an email by an NRA activist in May 2016 with the subject line “Kremlin Connection,” seeking his and Sessions’ advice for setting up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.</div><div>
</div><div>Both Dearborn and Mashburn were also looped in on an effort to soften the GOP’s platform towards Russia with a Ukraine amendment, another campaign aide involved in the push told Business Insider. </div><div>
</div><div>Read the letter below:</div></div><div></div></div><div>
</div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/nra-insiders-are-bracing-themselves-potential-investigation-their-russian-ties">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/nra-insiders-are-bracing-themselves-potential-investigation-their-russian-ties</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">NRA's precautions could be little more than due diligence as the group faces inquiries from congressional investigators and the media about its relationship with Torshin. But the feeling among some officials internally is that the group appears to be readying for an investigation.</span></font></div><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"True believers to the cause are getting very antsy," said a person privy to the NRA's internal deliberations. "They were definitely preparing, they were bracing themselves."</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The gun advocacy group has admitted previously that some of its funding in recent years has come from numerous <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601534305/nra-in-new-document-acknowledges-more-than-20-russian-linked-contributors" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Russians</a> or people living in Russia, but it described these as "routine payments." But <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article195231139.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">McClatchy</a> has reported that the FBI is investigating whether Kremlin-linked sources used the NRA to financially support President Donald Trump's campaign, which would likely violate federal election law.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref april 11</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601534305/nra-in-new-document-acknowledges-more-than-20-russian-linked-contributors">https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601534305/nra-in-new-document-acknowledges-more-than-20-russian-linked-contributors</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...One high-profile Russian NRA supporter, state bank official Alexander Torshin, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/590076949/depth-of-russian-politicians-cultivation-of-nra-ties-revealed" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">has cultivated a years-long relationship</a> with the organization — but he was placed under sanction by the United States with other Russians last week.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The NRA acknowledged that Torshin, a Kremlin-linked politician, is a life member of the NRA, and has been since 2012. "He has paid membership dues, but has not made any contributions," NRA general counsel John Frazer wrote to Wyden.</font></p><aside id="ad-backstage-wrap" aria-label="advertisement" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, however: "Based on Mr. Torshin's listing as a specially designated national as of April 6, we are currently reviewing our responsibilities with respect to him," Frazer wrote.</font></p><div id="res601543547" class="bucketwrap internallink insettwocolumn inset2col " style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 27px 15px; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; float: right; width: 330.781px; clear: right; z-index: 1;"><div class="bucket img" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden;"><div class="bucketblock" style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 80px; padding: 9px 11px 9px 17px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; min-height: 62px;"><h3 class="slug" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.27273; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/national-security/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 1px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">NATIONAL SECURITY</font></a></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.27273; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/04/06/600111532/the-russia-sanctions-saga-weapons-dealers-mobsters-and-suitcases-full-of-cash" data-metrics="{" category="category" story="Story" to="to" action="action" click="Click" internal="Internal" link="Link" label="label" https="https" www.npr.org="www.npr.org" the-russia-sanctions-saga-weapons-dealers-mobsters-and-suitcases-full-of-cash="the-russia-sanctions-saga-weapons-dealers-mobsters-and-suitcases-full-of-cash" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The Russia Sanctions Saga: Weapons Dealers, Mobsters And Suitcases Full Of Cash</font></a></h3></div></div></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McClatchy has previously reported that the<a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article195231139.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;"> FBI is investigating</a> whether Torshin may have funneled money to the NRA</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Frazer told Wyden in his letter that he believed the NRA has been more than cooperative with Wyden's questions and that this would be the last response he'll send to the senator's office.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Given the extraordinarily time-consuming and burdensome nature of your requests, we must respectfully decline to engage in this beyond the clear answers we have already provided," Frazer wrote.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The NRA has been revising its statements on the question of foreign donations. Steven</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hart, an outside counsel for the NRA, had said previously in an interview with <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nra-received-contribution-1000-russian/story?id=54080082" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">ABC News</a> that the NRA had received just one contribution from a Russian individual between 2012 and 2018.<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/politics/" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 1px;">POLITICS</a></span></font></p><div id="res601558416" class="bucketwrap internallink insettwocolumn inset2col " style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 27px 15px; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; float: right; width: 330.781px; clear: right; z-index: 1;"><div class="bucket img" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden;"><div class="bucketblock" style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 80px; padding: 9px 11px 9px 17px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; min-height: 62px;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.27273; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/03/27/597279176/nra-says-it-receives-foreign-funds-but-none-goes-to-election-work" data-metrics="{" category="category" story="Story" to="to" action="action" click="Click" internal="Internal" link="Link" label="label" https="https" www.npr.org="www.npr.org" nra-says-it-receives-foreign-funds-but-none-goes-to-election-work="nra-says-it-receives-foreign-funds-but-none-goes-to-election-work" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">NRA Says It Receives Foreign Funds, But None Goes To Election Work</font></a></h3></div></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since then, it has emerged <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/04/09/600359958/the-nra-may-have-more-russian-contributors-than-first-it-said" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">there have been more</a>. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A Wyden aide, who asked not to be identified discussing the office's investigation, said the NRA's shifting statements would prompt Wyden to consider how he might continue his questioning.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"After three letters, the NRA continually, and specifically avoided detailing what measures it takes to vet donations, including from shell companies, a known means for Russians to funnel money into the United States," the aide said.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Sen. Wyden will be referring his correspondence with the NRA to the Federal Elections Commission to contribute to their inquiry ... As ranking member of the Finance Committee, he is considering additional oversight actions in light of this response."</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref mcclathy</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mueller’s office declined comment.</font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Disclosure of the Torshin investigation signals a new dimension in the 18-month-old FBI probe of Russia’s interference. McClatchy reported a year ago that a multi-agency U.S. law enforcement and counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s intervention, begun even before the start of the 2016 general election campaign, initially included a focus on whether the Kremlin secretly helped fund efforts to boost Trump, but little has been said about that possibility in recent months.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The extent to which the FBI has evidence of money flowing from Torshin to the NRA, or of the NRA’s participation in the transfer of funds, could not be learned.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">However, the NRA reported spending a record $55 million on the 2016 elections, including $30 million to support Trump</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> –</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> triple what the group devoted to backing Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. Most of that was money was spent by an arm of the NRA that is not required to disclose its donors.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Two people with close connections to the powerful gun lobby said its total election spending actually approached or exceeded $70 million. The reporting gap could be explained by the fact that independent groups are not required to reveal how much they spend on Internet ads or field operations, including get-out-the-vote efforts.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">During the campaign, Trump was an outspoken advocate of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, at one point drawing a hail of criticism by suggesting that, if Clinton were elected, gun rights advocates could stop her from winning confirmation of liberal Supreme Court justices who support gun control laws.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,” Trump said at a rally in August 2016. “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Spanish authorities tag Torshin for money laundering</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Torshin, a leading figure in Putin’s party, has been implicated in money laundering by judicial authorities in Spain, as Bloomberg News first revealed in 2016. Spanish investigators alleged in an almost 500-page internal report that Torshin, who was then a senator, capitalized on his government role to assist mobsters laundering funds through Spanish properties and banks, Bloomberg reported</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A summary obtained by McClatchy of the still-secret report links Torshin to Russian money laundering and describes him as a godfather in a major Russian criminal organization called Taganskaya.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Investigators for three congressional committees probing Russia’s 2016 operations also have shown interest in Torshin, a lifetime NRA member who has attended several of its annual conventions. At the group’s meeting in Kentucky in May 2016, Torshin spoke to Donald Trump Jr. during a gala event at the group’s national gathering in Kentucky in May 2016, when his father won an earlier-than-usual NRA presidential endorsement.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the investigation.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"We have not been contacted by the FBI about anything related to Russia," said Steven Hart, an outside attorney for the NRA, in a statement provided to McClatchy five days after publication of this story.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Torshin could not be reached for comment, and emails to the Russian central bank seeking comment from Torshin and the bank elicited no response.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mueller’s investigation has been edging closer to Trump’s inner circle. This week, The New York Times reported that Mueller had negotiated an agreement under which Steve Bannon, who was recently ousted from his post as a senior White House adviser, would fully respond to questions about the Trump campaign. Bannon headed the campaign over its final weeks.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Since taking over the investigation last May, Mueller has secured guilty pleas from two former Trump aides, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, both of whom agreed to cooperate with prosecutors; and criminal charges against two other top campaign figures, former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...</div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">year ago, three U.S. intelligence agencies signed off on a joint assessment that was the basis for the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and other sanctions against the Kremlin. The intelligence agencies concluded that what began as a sophisticated Russian operation to undermine Americans’ faith in democracy morphed into a drive to help Trump win.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Torshin is among a phalanx of Putin proxies to draw the close attention of U.S. investigators, who also have tracked the activities of several Russian billionaires and pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs that have come in contact with Trump or his surrogates.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><b>Torshin was a senior member of the Russian Senate and in recent years helped set up a Moscow gun rights group called Right to Bear Arms.</b>He not only spoke with Trump Jr. at the NRA convention, but he also tried unsuccessfully to broker a meeting between Putin and the presidential candidate in 2016, according to the Times. He further sought to meet privately with the candidate himself near the 2016 NRA convention.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Torshin’s ties with the NRA have flourished in recent years. In late 2015, he hosted two dinners for a high-level NRA delegation during its week-long visit to Moscow that included meetings with influential Russian government and business figures.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In their internal report, Spanish prosecutors revealed a web of covert financial and money-laundering dealings between Torshin and Alexander Romanov, a Russian who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in 2016 and was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">The prosecutors’ evidence included 33 audio recordings of phone conversations from mid-2012 to mid-2013 between Torshin and Romanov, who allegedly laundered funds to buy a hotel on the ritzy island of Mallorca. Torshin had an 80 percent stake in the venture, the Spanish report said.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">In the phone conversations, Romanov referred to Torshin as the “godfather” or “boss.” Torshin has denied any links to organized crime and said his dealings with Romanov were purely “social.”</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">The Madrid-based newspaper El Pais last year reported that Spanish police were on the verge of arresting Torshin in the summer of 2013, when he had planned to attend a birthday party for Romanov, but a Russian prosecutor tipped the banker to plans to nab him if he set foot in Spain, and Torshin canceled his trip.</p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " mcclatchy="McClatchy" slab="Slab" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" font-size="font-size" padding="padding">Congress looking at Torshin, too<span class="ng-command" data-value="252" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">The House and Senate Intelligence Committees and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also have taken an interest in Torshin as part of their parallel inquiries into Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">In questioning Donald Trump Jr. at a closed-door hearing in mid-December, investigators for the Senate Intelligence Committee asked about his encounter with Torshin at the NRA convention, according to a source familiar with the hearing.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump Jr., said his client and Torshin talked only briefly when they were introduced during a meal.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">“It was all gun-related small talk,” Futerfas told McClatchy.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent letters in November to two senior Trump foreign policy aides, J.D. Gordon and Sam Clovis, seeking copies of any communications they had with or related to Torshin; the NRA; veteran conservative operative Paul Erickson; Maria Butina, a Torshin protege<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> </span>who ran the Russian pro-gun group he helped launch, and others linked to Torshin.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Erickson has raised funds for the NRA and is a friend of Butina’s. Shortly before the NRA’s May 2016 convention, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/03/us/politics/trump-putin-russia-nra-campaign.html" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: 0px 0px; color: rgb(66, 139, 202); text-decoration-line: none;">he emailed Trump campaign aide Rick Dearborn </a>about the possibility of setting up a meeting between Putin and Trump during the campaign, according to the Times<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Erickson’s email to Dearborn bore the subject line “Kremlin Connection.” In it, Erickson solicited advice from Dearborn and his boss, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a top foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, about the best way to connect Putin and Trump.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Both Dearborn and Butina, who has been enrolled as a graduate student at American University since mid 2016, have been asked to appear before the Judiciary Committee, but so far Erickson has not, sources familiar with the matter said.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><b>Bridges LLC, a company that Erickson and Butina established in February 2016 in Erickson’s home state of South Dakota, also is expected to draw scrutin</b>y. Public records don’t reveal any financial transactions involving Bridges. In a phone interview last year, Erickson said the firm was established in case Butina needed any monetary assistance for her graduate studies — an unusual way to use an LLC.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Erickson said he met Butina and Torshin when he and David Keene, a former NRA president, attended a meeting of Right to Bear Arms a few years ago in Moscow. Erickson described the links between Right to Bear Arms and the NRA as a “moral support operation both ways.”</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Torshin’s contacts with the NRA and the Trump campaign last year also came to the attention of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser. When Torshin tried to arrange a personal meeting with Trump near the NRA convention site last May, Kushner scotched the idea, according to emails forwarded to Kushner.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">On top of Torshin’s efforts to cozy up to the Trump campaign, the Moscow banker has forged ties with powerful conservatives, including Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, the Californian whom some have deemed Putin’s best friend in Washington. In a phone interview in 2016, Rohrabacher recalled meeting Torshin in Moscow a few years earlier and described him as “a mover and shaker.”</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Last February when Torshin visited Washington, Rockefeller heir and conservative patron George O’Neill Jr. hosted a fancy four-hour dinner for the banker on Capitol Hill, an event that drew Rohrabacher, Erickson and other big names on the right. Rohrabacher has labeled Torshin as “conservatives’ favorite Russian,” Torshin was in Washington at the time to lead his country’s delegation to the National Prayer Breakfast, where Trump spoke. The banker also was slated to see the presidentat a meet-and-greet event prior to a White House breakfast, but Torshin’s invitation was canceled after the White House learned of his alleged mob connections, Yahoo News reported.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Torshin’s involvement with the NRA may have begun in 2013 when he attended the group’s convention in Houston. <b>Keene, the ex-NRA leader and an avid hunter, was instrumental in building a relationship with the Russian, according to multiple conservative sources.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Keene also helped lead a high-level NRA delegation to Moscow in December 2015 for a week of lavish meals and meetings with Russian business and political leaders. The week’s festivities included a visit to a Russian gun company and a meeting with a senior Kremlin official and wealthy Russians, according to a member of the delegation, Arnold Goldschlager, a California doctor who has been active in NRA programs to raise large donations.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Others on the trip included Joe Gregory, who runs the NRA’s Ring of Freedom program for elite donors who chip in checks of $1 million and upwards, Milwaukee <b>Sheriff David Clarke and Pete Brownell, a chief executive of a gun company and longtime NRA board member.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">In a phone interview, Goldschlager described the trip as a “people-to-people mission,” and said he was impressed with Torshin — who, he noted, hosted both a “welcoming” dinner for the NRA contingent and another one.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">“They were killing us with vodka and the best Russian food,” Goldschlager said. “The trip exceeded my expectations by logarithmic levels.”</p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></aside></div><div></div></div>