Leaked email shows former NRA president wanted access to Putin - Polidicks

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nra-heavyweight-wanted-access-to-putin-leaked-email A former NRA president hoped to win access to Vladimir Putin on a trip to Moscow, according to an email from one of the trip’s organizers. That organizer, Republican operative Paul Erickson, also said the trip could have “enormous diplomatic consequences.” The email, sent in November 2015 and reviewed by The Daily Beast, came just months before the Kremlin’s election meddling went into full gear. In the email, Erickson wrote that an official with the Russian Central Bank had made a tantalizing, though tentative, offer to former NRA president David Keene: an interview for his newspaper with Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the time, Keene was the opinion editor for The Washington Times, a conservative newspaper. He had previously helmed the NRA, and he maintained close ties with its top officials. And he was one of the small group of people on the trip. “[I]mpressing the NRA’s Russian hosts is also the quickest way to secure a private interview with President Putin on behalf of David Keene and the Washington Times – a plum that was dangled in front of Keene by Torshin himself visit to Washington, DC,” Erickson wrote. “High stakes all around.” The trip has drawn the attention of investigators. Federal prosecutors in Washington D.C. told Erickson’s attorney several months ago that they were considering charging him for illegally acting as a covert agent of a foreign government, under a statute Justice Department lawyers refer to as “espionage-lite.” Butina is in jail awaiting sentencing and has agreed to cooperate with federal investigators. Recommend the full article

that image is beautiful.

What the fuck is up with so many people wanting to suck up to a literal dictator? Cant you just be content?

Support Gun Owners of America. I don't think I really should need to say this over and over again.

They have no ethics, no sense of right and wrong, and no motivations beyond more wealth and power. And Putin is exactly that but running a country. Birds of a feather flock together, as they say.

Hang 'em high.

Goddamn it I was just gonna say this. String em up high. Fucking commie lovers.

It's at least partly because Kremlin agents are constantly looking for Americans to butter up so they can get their hooks into business + politicians. Maria Butina was specifically trying to get access to the GOP leadership when she got into a relationship with Erickson, who was more than twice her age. According to the article some of the other NRA execs weren't happy about the trip.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jByyWMLk4iDm_c4UtT3PQM4LiJk=/1400x1400/filters:format(jpeg)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/11932223/Dj2e0w9VAAAraKs.jpg just deport the entire lot of these people off to russia if they love them that much lol, no great loss

its like the entire core of right wing politics in this country is one giant facade, I mean you have the NRA fascinated with russia, the washington times, tons of gop activists, the president, several congressmen. there isn't a gop its a paper mask.

Mokey's Paw: Send them to Chechnya. It's Russia but still filled with people they hate.

We need subversion to be a federal crime again like it was back in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy was around.