Schumer, Democrats press IRS to consider disallowing NRA's tax-exempt status
Senate Democrats led by senators Chuck Schumer and Oregon Ron Wyden asked the IRS on Wednesday to investigate whether the National Rifle Association deserves its tax-exempt status.
The request was based on a recently released Senate Finance committee staff report, which was written by Democrats and hammered home an alleged connection between the NRA and the activities of Maria Butina and her Russian government-sponsor, Alexander Torshin.
Torshin and Butina are operatives who allegedly used NRA activism to give the Russian government access to conservative political circles.
The report alleges NRA officials held meetings with Russians in the United States and that donors met with Russian companies, government officials and oligarchs, some of whom were sanctioned individuals, with close ties to the Kremlin in 2015.
“These findings raise questions about whether certain NRA activities violated the organization's social welfare requirements,” Schumer, of New York, and Wyden, or Oregon, wrote in a statement.
In response to the initial report, the NRA said lawmakers were trying to promote a “politically motivated and contrived narrative.”
“An avalanche of proof confirms that the NRA, as an organization, was never involved in the activities about which the Democrats write,” William A. Brewer III, an attorney for the NRA, said in a statement.
Senate Republicans also rebuked the Democrats’ report.
The NRA did not return FOX Business’ request for comment regarding calls for investigation into its tax-exempt status.
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A spokesperson for the IRS did not return FOX Business’ request for comment.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday the NRA won a legal battle against the city of San Francisco over its effort to declare the group a domestic terrorist organization. The NRA sued causing the city to back down, retracting its order for city employees to take steps to limit business dealings with the group.
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