he National Rifle Association spent $30 million to help elect Donald Trump more than any other independent conservative group. Most of that sum went toward television advertising, but a political message loses its power if it fails to reach the right audience at the right time. For the complex and consequential task of placing ads in key markets across the nation in 2016, the NRA turned to a media-strategy firm called Red Eagle Media.
One element of Red Eagles work for the NRA involved purchasing a slate of 52 ad slots on WVEC, the ABC affiliate in Norfolk, Virginia, in late October 2016. The ads targeted adults aged 35 to 64, and aired on local news programs and syndicated shows like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. In paperwork filed with the Federal Communications Commission, Red Eagle described them as anti-Hillary and pro-Trump.
The Trump campaign pursued a strikingly similar advertising strategy. Shortly after the Red Eagle purchase, as Election Day loomed, it bought 33 ads on the same station, set to air during the same week. The ads, which the campaign purchased through a firm called American Media & Advocacy Group (AMAG), were aimed at precisely the same demographic as the NRA spots, and often ran during the same shows, bombarding Norfolk viewers with complementary messages.
The two purchases may have looked coincidental; Red Eagle and AMAG appear at first glance to be separate firms. But each is closely connected to a major conservative media-consulting firm called National Media Research, Planning and Placement. In fact, the three outfits are so intertwined that both the NRAs and the Trump campaigns ad buys were authorized by the same person: National Medias chief financial officer, Jon Ferrell.
This is very strong evidence, if not proof, of illegal coordination, said Larry Noble, a former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission. This is the heat of the general election, and the same person is acting as an agent for the NRA and the Trump campaign.
Reporting by The Trace shows that the NRA and the Trump campaign employed the same operation at times, the exact same people to craft and execute their advertising strategies for the 2016 presidential election. The investigation, which involved a review of more than 1,000 pages of Federal Communications Commission and Federal Election Commission documents, found multiple instances in which National Media, through its affiliates Red Eagle and AMAG, executed ad buys for Trump and the NRA that seemed coordinated to enhance each other.
Individuals working for National Media or its affiliated companies either signed or were named in FCC documents, demonstrating that they had knowledge of both the NRA and the Trump campaigns advertising plans.
Experts say the arrangement appears to violate campaign finance laws.
I dont think Ive ever seen a situation where illegal coordination seems more obvious, said Ann Ravel, a former chair of the FEC who reviewed the records. It is so blatant that it doesnt even seem sloppy. Everyone involved probably just thinks there arent going to be any consequences.
National Media, the NRA, the Trump campaign, and the White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment. AMAG does not appear to have any employees or contacts independent of National Media; a lawyer who has been identified in news accounts as representing AMAG did not respond to multiple requests for comment. ... The NRA was free to spend as much money as it wanted on behalf of Trump in 2016. But under federal election law, if an independent group and a campaign share election-related information, then the groups expenditures no longer qualify as independent and are instead treated as in-kind donations, subject to a $5,000 cap.
