Trump Campaign, NRA Illegally Coordinated Ads, Groups Allege
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign may have illegally coordinated with the National Rifle Association in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election, two watchdog groups said in a complaint filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission.
The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action and its political action committee, the NRA Political Victory Fund, placed $25 million worth of television ads through the same ad-buying executives who also arranged spots for Trump’s campaign.
That ensured that “spending by both the NRA and the Trump campaign would be complementary and advance a unified, coordinated election strategy,” according to the complaint brought by the Campaign Legal Center, which favors greater regulation of money in politics, and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun safety group.
...
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen as much evidence as this of coordination,” said Brandon Fischer, director of federal reform for the Campaign Legal Center. He noted that the four executives are described as senior officials involved in the development of strategies. “Here it’s the exact same employees buying on behalf of the Trump campaign and the NRA.”