[EL] An insidious foreign dark money threat: New reports about Russian money going to the NRA could prove watchdogs’ fears correct

[Rick Hasen]

Seems to me a public statement could help allay some fears that the NRA was breaking the law by accepting foreign money for election related activities----rather than waiting for a DOJ investigation that may or may not come.



From: Sean Parnell <sparnell at philanthropyroundtable.org>
Date: Friday, January 19, 2018 at 9:11 AM
To: Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>, Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: RE: An insidious foreign dark money threat: New reports about Russian money going to the NRA could prove watchdogs’ fears correct

Not that I know of. Why? Is that somehow relevant to the three points I made below?

Sean

From: Rick Hasen [mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu]
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2018 11:59 AM
To: Sean Parnell <sparnell at philanthropyroundtable.org>; Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: An insidious foreign dark money threat: New reports about Russian money going to the NRA could prove watchdogs’ fears correct

Has the NRA issued any public statements denying the receipt of money from Russian government sources/sources allied with Russian government which were used by its c4 for election-related activity?


From: Sean Parnell <sparnell at philanthropyroundtable.org<mailto:sparnell at philanthropyroundtable.org>>
Date: Friday, January 19, 2018 at 8:55 AM
To: Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>>, Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu<mailto:law-election at uci.edu>>
Subject: re: An insidious foreign dark money threat: New reports about Russian money going to the NRA could prove watchdogs’ fears correct

I wanted to clear up what some might mistakenly infer from the piece by Ciara Torres-Spelliscy linked to below concerning the latest speculation regarding foreign money, Donald Trump, and those pesky Russians (hold on a sec, it appears the 1980’s are calling and wish to talk to me about something). She writes:

For many years now, good-government groups and campaign finance experts have warned that illegal foreign funds could be hiding in that dark money.

That’s because, in federal races, political spenders that go dark are exploiting a loophole between the campaign finance system overseen by the FEC, which typically insists on that all donors to campaigns identify themselves, and charities the Internal Revenue Service allows to collect funds donated anonymously.

Three things:

  1.  The National Rifle Association is not a “charity,” at least as defined by the IRS. It’s a 501c4 “social welfare” organization (it does have an associated foundation, which is a 501c3, but I don’t believe it’s alleged that this entity was funding any political ads, let alone Russian-funded ads).
  2.  While the NRA and other 501c organizations do not reveal donors to the public, they do reveal them to the IRS (or at least are required to) on Schedule B. Presumably, if there is a concern that the NRA took in millions of dollars from Russian sources (whether state or “private” to the extent there’s any distinction in Russia), it should be relatively easy for the FBI to get the information from the IRS (I’m not sure if it requires a subpoena or not in this particular instance, but law enforcement is able to get confidential tax records). I’d guess that someone at the NRA handed a few million dollars by a Putin pal would have realized this and handed it back, if such a highly-speculative transaction occurred, but then there are some imprudent people out there so who knows?
  3.  Anonymous contributions to charities are hardly a “loophole,” it is in fact a practice with a long and deeply ingrained history in philanthropy, praised in the Gospel of Matthew 6:1 – 6:4 and also by Seneca the Younger, among others. I’ve written an overview of anonymous charitable giving, published last year, if anyone is interested: http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/file_uploads/Protecting_Donor_Privacy.pdf

Best,
Sean Parnell
Vice President of Public Policy, The Philanthropy Roundtable
1120 20th Street NW, Suite 550 South
Washington, DC  20036
(202) 600-7883 (direct)
(571) 289-1374 (mobile)
sparnell at philanthropyroundtable.org<mailto:sparnell at philanthropyroundtable.org>







“An insidious foreign dark money threat: New reports about Russian money going to the NRA could prove watchdogs’ fears correct”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96992>
Posted on January 19, 2018 7:16 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96992> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy<http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/insidious-foreign-dark-money-threat-article-1.3765048> NYDN oped.
[re]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D96992&title=%E2%80%9CAn%20insidious%20foreign%20dark%20money%20threat%3A%20New%20reports%20about%20Russian%20money%20going%20to%20the%20NRA%20could%20prove%20watchdogs%E2%80%99%20fears%20correct%E2%80%9D>
Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
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