Senate Democrats are urging the Internal Revenue Service to begin an investigation into the National Rifle Association and whether they should be able to keep their tax-exempt status.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Ron Wyden, the head of the Finance Committee, sent the letter Wednesday to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, NBC News reported.
The letter cited NRA meetings with Kremlin-tied oligarchs and government as the basis of an investigation, along with continuing reports of potential questionable gains by some of the organization’s top officials.
“As you are aware, public reporting also suggests that the NRA may have been engaged in other significant and persistent acts of potential private inurement and other impermissible acts,” the letter stated. “Given this report’s concerning findings and other allegations of potential violations of tax exempt law by the NRA, it is incumbent on the IRS to fully investigate the organization’s activities to determine whether the NRA’s tax exemption should be disallowed.”
The NRA has undergone a year of massive turmoil starting this spring when NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre accused NRA president Oliver North of trying to blackmail him into resigning. LaPierre won the power struggle but has since been accused of siphoning off thousands of dollars from the organization, including a report that the NRA sought to pay for a $6 million mansion.
