The National Rifle Association acknowledged this week that it has moved money from accounts with foreign donation to accounts that are used for spending on U.S. political campaigns. The organization insists the transactions are "permitted by law."
After it was announced that special counsel Robert Mueller was investigating whether the NRA was used to funnel Russian money into Donald Trump's presidential campaign, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked the gun group to prove that the allegations were untrue.
NPR reported on Tuesday that the NRA admitted in a letter to Wyden that "we do receive some contributions from foreign individuals and entities," but it also insisted that "those contributions are made directly to the NRA for lawful purposes."
According to NPR, "the movement of its money between accounts could make it difficult, if not impossible, to track how the money is spent since it is not isolated or sequestered."
In the letter to Wyden, the NRA said that it did "receive funds from foreign persons only for purposes not connected to elections, as permitted by federal law."
And it acknowledged that some of the money in accounts containing foreign donations is moved into accounts used to fund political campaigns in the U.S. But the NRA insisted that the "transfers between accounts are made as permitted by law."
"The NRA did not immediately respond to a request from NPR to disclose the total sum of its donations from foreign sources," NPR noted.