National Rifle Association Entity “Under Investigation” for Late Reporting of Hundreds of Thousands in Campaign Expenses

Washington State Public Disclosure Commission Investigation Focuses on “Bulk” of Spending by Campaign to Oppose Washington’s Gun Background Check Law in 2014

(Seattle, WA) – The Washington State Public Disclosure Commission has opened an investigation into more than a quarter-million dollars of campaign expenditures made by the National Rifle Association’s committee to oppose Initiative 594. The move is an escalation of the state’s scrutiny of the gun lobby group’s improper reporting of its spending, which was first exposed in the final weeks of the Initiative 594 campaign.

As The Seattle Times reported:

“The committee — the National Rifle Association of Washingtonians Opposed to I-594 — argued against the initiative ultimately approved by voters that expanded gun-purchase background checks to private transfers and sales.

During the campaign, the PDC confirmed that the local spending committee made at least five campaign-disclosure filings later than the legal requirement…Those filings involved about $350,000 transferred from the NRA to its local spending committee. All told, the late filings represented the bulk of the $486,000 raised by Washingtonians Opposed to I-594.”

The complaint, which was originally filed in October 2014, was upgraded to “Under Investigation” by the Public Disclosure Commission earlier this fall.