Russians Infiltrate Republicans

I was born at the height of the Cold War, just a few years after Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy was finally forced out of power. McCarthy used his position as committee chair to make himself a household name by accusing thousands of federal government employees of being communist spies and getting them fired. He kept raising the stakes until he tried to terrorize Army officers on national television and was finally called out by members of his own party.

Growing up I watched black and while movies at school that explained how the FBI watched out for communist spies; those movies showed how secret messages could be passed in hollow coins or using a folded newspaper to slip a note from one person to another as they passed each other on the street. Russian communism was feared by the public due in large part to Republicans ranting about being tough while claiming Democrats were weak. Lyndon Johnson damaged his own legacy by claiming US naval ships were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin in order to have an excuse to send combat troops to Viet Nam as a way to show his was strong against communists.

In 2011, Maria Butina became founding chair of a new Russian gun rights group called the Right to Bear Arms. In 2013, NRA President David Keene was introduced as an honored guest at the Right to Bear Arms conference in Moscow. In December 2015, Butina’s Russian organization sponsored an NRA delegation, which included Keene and Trump campaign surrogate Sheriff David Clarke, to Moscow where attendees met with influential Russian officials including former deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin who had been under U.S. sanctions since 2014.

In 2016 the NRA doubled the size of its contributions to the National Republican Committee in the 2016 election cycle after connecting with Russian Maria Butina and her benefactors who provided millions of those dollars. Butina is also on record having cozied up to a wide range of Republican elected officials and political operatives. Butina is now in jail accused of espionage for the Russians.

The most prominent homeschooling organization in the U.S., the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is a bastion of Republican support. The HSLDA has been associating with Russian operatives since at least 2014 when Michael Donnelly, director of global outreach, spoke there participated in a conference held in Russia. Donnelly wrote that he “met with senior leaders of the [Russian] Orthodox Church.” As Donnelly noted on Facebook, “[The] family conference I’m attending today is being held at the Kremlin and says a lot at least on its face about the value of family in Russian government.” One of the events sponsors was a foundation run by sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev.

The World Congress of Families (WCF), links sanctioned Russian officials to the broader U.S. religious right. The WCF, is a joint Russian-American project that reportedly receives funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs like Vladimir Yakunin, who is the former head of Russian Railways and a close Putin confidant. One of the links between the HSLDA, the WCF and hence to sanctioned Russian officials is Alexey Komov. A Russian national and fluent English speaker, Komov is the official Russian representative to the WCF. He also works directly for Konstantin Malofeev, nicknamed “God’s oligarch” for his role in financing religious-right ventures in Russia and abroad. Malofeev is a financial contributor to the WCF also currently under U.S. sanctions for having helped fund separatists in eastern Ukraine.

So much has changed, now it’s the Republicans and their supporting institutions that are playing footsy with Russians.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 25, 2019

Dark Money and Foreign Interference in Elections

In a decision made by the Supreme Court in 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, overturning campaign finance protections, they made it legal for Political Action Committees (PACs) which spend money on political advertising to hide the names of the donors who provided those funds. Since the public is therefore in the dark as to who is really paying for the political advertising the term dark money was coined. In many cases people donate funds to one organization which must provide the names of its donors then that organization donates the bulk of its funds to another organization that doesn’t have to reveal the names of its donors. If this sounds like money laundering that’s because after a fashion it is, though it’s legal.

When interpreting a message most of us will consider not only what is said but also who is saying it. If a known liar makes a bold claim the average listener will consider that claim with a large helping of salt. The same is true for political advertising most of us want to know who is making the claims in the ad in order to better judge whether or not to believe the claims.

The most recently appointed Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch, was supported by $10 million of dark money pushing for him. Given that it is a lifetime appointment doesn’t is seem appropriate that the American public know who was promoting him and in order to provide guidance on how legitimate the claims made about him might be?

If China had donated $5 million to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or Iran had donated $3 million to an Islamic mosque in Houston which was then used that money to support Hillary Clinton’s run for the presidency I’m quite certain that Republicans in congress and everywhere else would have jumped all over it. The National Rifle Association spent $30 million in support of the Trump campaign. It has come to light that Russia may have donated millions of dollars to the National Rifle Association at that time. Hardly a word is being said about it by Republicans.

There are laws in place prohibiting foreign governments and their citizens from funding political advertising or campaigns but when “dark money” is allowed how do we truly know whether or not those laws are being followed.

Dark money isn’t just a problem in presidential campaigns, there aren’t any prohibitions on it in state campaigns either. Numerous state legislature races have been impacted by dark money in recent years. State Representative Charlie Geren twice filed bills that would have prohibited such anonymous funding of campaign advertising but Gov. Greg Abbott hasn’t gotten behind the bills so Texas legislature has failed to pass them. Isn’t it well past time that the public get the opportunity to judge political ad claims by who is paying the bills for those ads?

Published in the Seguin Gazette March 9, 2018