NRA used shell companies to fund Tom Cotton and others, lawsuit says

The Washington Post reports on a lawsuit over an alleged scheme by the National Rifle Association to funnel up to $35 million in illegal campaign contributions to multiple candidates, including Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.

Gabby Giffords, a former Arizona congresswoman who founded a gun safety nonprofit after being shot, is behind the suit. Giffords says the NRA created an illegal system of shell companies to boost pro-gun candidates with millions of dollars worth of in-kind advertisements and marketing.

A lawsuit filed this week alleges the NRA illegally donated to pro-gun candidates including Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

The suit alleges that in addition to Cotton and Trump, U.S. Senate candidates Thom Tillis, Cory Gardner, Ron Johnson, Matt Rosendale and Josh Hawley also benefitted. The NRA illegally coordinated with these candidates’ campaigns, the suit charges.

“Campaign finance law prohibits groups like the NRA from buying influence over elected officials by coordinating spending with those candidates’ campaigns. When special interests like the NRA secretly collude with candidates, this illegal coordination corrupts our election process and deprives voters of their right to know who is spending to influence their vote,” attorney Molly Danahy explained in a press release from Giffords, the nonprofit established by Gabby Giffords.