CNN: Mueller Probing Trump Relationship With NRA

The special counsel investigation is training its sights on the National Rifle Association’s links to the Trump campaign, CNN reported today.

Former Trump campaign staffer Sam Nunberg told CNN that he had been asked about the campaign’s “dealings with the NRA” in a February 2018 interview with the special counsel’s office.

The network cited Nunberg saying that prosecutors had asked about why Trump was selected as a speaker at the NRA’s 2015 annual meeting, months before he publicly announced his intention to run for president. Prosecutors also asked how Trump and his associates formed a relationship with the NRA, Nunberg said, per CNN.

Mueller’s line of inquiry may dovetail with the case of Maria Butina, a Russian national who pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy last month related to attempts to infiltrate the NRA at the behest of a Russian government official.

Butina arranged a trip to Russia for NRA brass, and she handled meetings between Russians and the NRA in Washington.

But the focus of Mueller’s interest in Trump and the NRA is unclear from Nunberg’s reported comments, beyond the link between the anti-gun control group and his then-budding presidential campaign.