NRA illegally funded Donald Trump and other GOP campaigns, lawsuit alleges

National Rifle Association faces a federal lawsuit that accuses the organisation of violating campaign finance laws by using shell companies to illegally funnel up to $35 million to Republican political candidates, including former President Donald Trump, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, and others.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Giffords by the Campaign Legal Center on Tuesday in a Washington court. The lawsuit accuses the NRA of practices dating to 2014 “to evade campaign finance regulations by using a series of shell corporations to illegally but surreptitiously coordinate advertising with at least seven candidates for federal office,” the Associated Press reported.

The lawsuit names Hawley and US Representative Matt Rosendale of Montana as defendants, but it also accuses the NRA of “excessive and unreported in-kind contributions” to the campaigns of Trump and Republican Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and former Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado. The contributions to Rosendale were during his unsuccessful 2018 Senate campaign, according to the lawsuit.

Trump’s 2016 campaign received up to $25 million as part of the scheme, the lawsuit states.

Two NRA affiliates — National Rifle Association of America Political Victory Fund and National Rifle Association of America Institute for Legislative Action — are accused of coordinating with GOP candidates to use the same personnel and vendors for campaign ads.

Giffords is a gun control nonprofit founded by former Democratic US Representative Gabby Giffords. Giffords represented the 8th District of Arizona from 2007 to 2012, when she resigned after suffering a brain injury during a 2011 mass shooting in her district that killed six people.

The NRA responded on Thursday with a statement calling the lawsuit “another premeditated abuse of the public by our adversaries — who will stop at nothing in the pursuit of their anti-freedom agenda. This latest action is as misguided as it is transparent. Suffice it to say, the NRA has full confidence in its political activities and remains eager to set the record straight.”

None of Trump, Hawley, Rosendale, and others cited in the lawsuit have responded to the allegations.

The lawsuit seeks an order preventing the NRA from similar violations in future elections and asks the court to require the NRA to pay a penalty matching the amount that was allegedly spent illegally — up to $35 million.