It’s not illegal for foreigners to contribute to the NRA’s general coffers, but it would be illegal if the group used foreign money for political activities.
Money is fungible. I assume the NRA has a lot of money. The NRA can say "Sure, we contributed to Trump's campaign. But none of the money we gave was from Russian sources. ***THEIR*** contributions to us are still in the bank."
No?In his letter to the NRA treasurer Wilson Phillips, Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote that he was “troubled” by the possibility that Russian interests had tried to influence the elections “by abusing the rules governing 501©(4) tax exempt organizations.” Wyden asked Phillips for “any remuneration, transaction, or contribution that involved any of the 501©(4) entities associated with your organization and any entity or individual associated with any Russian official, Russian national, or Russian business interest.”
And here’s what the NRA treasurer said in response.
Look how much Donald has his arm pulled over in that picture. I really wonder if that’s the power thing that some folks claim, or if it’s due to his balance being as bad as it seems when he’s walking sometimes and he’s just pulling on the person to help maintain his balance?
No. First, the NRA doesn’t have that much money. And the russian contributions may have been in the tens of millions of dollars. Second, financial-crimes investigators are really good at tracing flows. So if a russian check for a million dollars comes in on Day 1, and the NRA sends out a check for a million-dollar ad buy on Day 4, the explanation that the money came from somewhere else isn’t sustainable. (Organizations also only have so much in general expenses, so if the money that comes in that is legally obligated to general expenses exceeds what’s actually spent, that’s another dead giveaway.)
Yeah I think some version of this is likely. NRA has hundreds of millions in annual revenue.
“It’s not illegal for foreigners to contribute to the NRA’s general coffers”
seeing as russia has used facebook and twitter to organize diametrically opposed groups to hold rallies on opposite sides of the same street on the same day, ostensibly to destabilize and create conflicts, it is no trouble for me to recognize that the NRA is rife to be used in an identical way to insure that no common sense laws can be written to reign in gun violence in this country, to pass laws against high capacity magazines, or say rally really hard against extension of the assault weapons ban.
The russian modus is to create chaos in our country, the NRA is the most stringent advocate for continued chaos related to gun violence, it makes sense that if the russians use facebook and twitter and breitbart to sow chaos, why not the ready made wrapped in the flag NRA?
How fortunate for them Captain Chaos ran for Prez in 2016.
Yeah, I mean, wow - what a coincidence…
Dear NRA: Fuck you, you fucking fucks! Go get 'em, Ron!
Guns, Russian gangsters, and NRA campaign money all came together in Louisville last year: reports of which may now show up in Mueller’s inbox. You don’t need a warrant to understand the motivation of the Republican Party led by Paul Ryan to shut this “Russia thing” down. Go for it, Senator Wyden.
Please, Wyden, very loudly and publicly request documents on GOP Congressmen whose campaigns were aided by the illegal Russian hacks, starting with the entire Florida roster.
To piggyback on @paulw, the NRA as a 501©(4) must keep very good financial records and account for every dollar received and spent. Failure to do so is a violation of federal law that can result in the NRA being liquidated and if the failures could be deemed criminal in which case people can go to jail
So it’s much more complicated than you are imagining, and this is not news to the NRA.
Gahddess I’m going to have some wonderful dreams tonight! 
I would have expected to hear the usual “vehement denials” coming from the NRA. Instead, silence.