Hawley campaign and NRA’s political fund accused of illegal coordination

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s Senate campaign and the National Rifle Association’s PAC have engaged in an elaborate scheme to conceal illegal coordination, a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission alleges.

Hawley’s campaign is employing the same people to produce ads as the NRA Political Victory Fund. Last month, one person placed ads on behalf of the Missouri Republican’s campaign and the PAC with the same television station on the same day, according to the complaint. 

The overlap in personnel is strong evidence of coordination between the PAC and the campaign, said Brendan Fischer, director of the federal reform program at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington.

His group and Giffords, a gun control group founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who survived a 2011 shooting, filed the complaint Monday night against Hawley’s campaign and the NRA Political Victory Fund.

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