WASHINGTON _ For months, the National Rifle Association has had a stock answer to queries about an investigation into whether Russian money was funneled to the gun rights group to aid Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
The NRA, which spent $30 million-plus backing Trump's bid, has heard nothing from the FBI or any other law enforcement agency, spokesman Andrew Arulanandam reiterated in an email the other day.
Legal experts, though, say there's an easy explanation for that. They say it would be routine for Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, who are looking at the NRA's funding as part of a broader inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections, to secretly gain access to the NRA's tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service.
