美国国家公共电台 NPR NRA Was 'Foreign Asset' To Russia Ahead of 2016, New Senate Report Reveals

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

A new report from Senate Democrats¹ tells us more about the relationship between the National Rifle Association and Russia leading up to the 2016 elections. It says the NRA was, quote, "a foreign asset to Moscow." That conclusion raises questions about the organization's tax-exempt status. NPR's Tim Mak was one of the first to see this report. And he is here in the studio.

Hi, Tim.

TIM MAK, BYLINE²: Hey, there.

SHAPIRO: What does foreign asset mean in this context? What did the NRA do according to this report?

MAK: Well, according to this report, they facilitated access for two Russian nationals named Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin.

SHAPIRO: They've been in the news a lot. Maria Butina is currently in prison. Alexander Torshin was her boss. What did the NRA do?

MAK: What we're talking about here is taking a look at the mission of Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin. What were they trying to do in the United States? And they were trying to expand their influence at the behest of the Russian government. And how did the NRA play a role? They helped facilitate Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin's access to numerous events and organizations in the United States. They helped pay for their travel at times to some of these events and organizations. And they supported them by connecting them to various political figures throughout the country.

SHAPIRO: And key to this report is the assertion that the NRA knew at the time that Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin were working on behalf of the Kremlin.

MAK: Right. The report shows that Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin were not shy about saying that they had links with the Kremlin and that folks in the NRA were aware of this link and simply did not find that to be important.

SHAPIRO: One of the central events in this report is a trip to Moscow that some NRA officials took. Tell us about it.

MAK: Well, so there was this trip back in 2015. And the NRA has maintained for a very long time that this was not an NRA delegation³, that it was just some NRA figures happened to go on this trip. But the interviews done by the committee show that the NRA was intimately involved in organizing the trip, preparing travel visas, preparing briefing documents.

SHAPIRO: So it wasn't just individuals. It was the organization.

MAK: The organization was part of the planning and execution of the trip from beginning to end.

SHAPIRO: Does that create legal problems for the National Rifle Association, which is a tax-exempt organization?

MAK: It may, especially since a lot of the folks who went on that trip to Russia, these emails show that a primary reason that they went was to benefit their own private businesses unrelated to the National Rifle Association.

SHAPIRO: How would that play out? Like, what would the process be?

MAK: The reason why it would be a threat to the National Rifle Association is that it is a tax-exempt organization. And tax-exempt organizations are not allowed to use their resources to the personal benefit of its officials. And it's not allowed to use its funds to do things well outside its stated goals. And it's not clear what a trip to Russia for the personal private business interests of NRA figures would have to do with the tax-exempt mission of the National Rifle Association.

SHAPIRO: This report was led by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden. It was written by the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee. What are the Republicans saying?

MAK: Well, they think this is totally overblown, that Democrats on the committee have taken emails and interviews and made a much bigger deal of the facts than what the facts will ultimately allow in the big picture. And they also say that, you know, we're talking thousands of dollars here. And the National Rifle Association is an organization that takes in hundreds of millions of dollars every year in revenue, so this is a very small issue, and that the NRA's tax-exempt status is not at risk here because this is a small thing in a larger context.

SHAPIRO: Any response from the NRA today?

MAK: So the NRA has said that this is a politically motivated and contrived⁴ narrative⁵, that this report today is being done to embarrass the National Rifle Association. William Brewer⁶ - he's the counsel to the NRA - he said that the report goes to great lengths to, quote, "try to involve the NRA in activities of private individuals and create the false impression that the NRA did not act appropriately. Nothing could be further from the truth." That's what the lawyer for the NRA said. And it's also worth noting that the NRA is continuing to insist, despite the evidence that the committee has put together, that the trip to Moscow was not an official NRA trip.

SHAPIRO: NPR's Tim Mak. Thank you.

MAK: Thanks a lot.

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

4 contrived   

adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的

参考例句：

• There was nothing contrived or calculated about what he said.他说的话里没有任何蓄意捏造的成分。
• The plot seems contrived.情节看起来不真实。

5 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

6 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。