"One of a series about the https://tyt.com/stories/2E4lb3zIDV37rdUAwsh1zn/SNZ5EQVQrU7ZMiYHaz9Zk, the secretive religious group that runs the National Prayer Breakfast and is popularly known as The Family. This series is based on Family documents obtained by TYT, including lists of breakfast guests and who invited them.
Before Russian operative Maria Butina arrived in Washington for her first National Prayer Breakfast, plans were made for her and her Russian handler to be hosted by a longtime Chick-fil-A executive who helped draw up the breakfast guest list for more than 20 years. But the story behind this leg of Butina’s circuitous journey toward a U.S. prison has never been fully told.
After Butina’s arrest for failing to register as a foreign operative, political and media attention went almost exclusively to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and how it helped Butina build political back channels here. But internal documents of the Fellowship Foundation suggest that The Family’s role was largely unscrutinized at the time and greater than has been previously reported.
For almost two decades, journalists have been unearthing how The Family helps to create exactly the kinds of back channels Butina sought. Author Jeff Sharlet, for instance, exposed the behind-the-scenes role Family leaders played in Uganda’s notorious anti-LGBTQ death penalty law.
More recently, TYT revealed how The Family helped anti-LGBTQ leaders in Ukraine set up a prayer breakfast there, with help from Democrats. LGBTQ groups have warned that prayer breakfasts are part of international efforts to mainstream policies and politicians hostile to reproductive and LGBTQ rights. [...] By Jan. 27 of 2016, Erickson, Butina’s conservative boyfriend, had secured prayer breakfast tickets from Sanford for her and Torshin. But the breakfast is a four-day event, and Family documents show Erickson didn’t attend the breakfast. Which meant Butina and Torshin needed someone else to host them while they were in Washington.
The two Russians already knew the NRA’s leaders, but it wasn’t the NRA who hosted them in the nation’s capitol. Instead, NRA millionaire funder Joe Gregory, who had traveled with the NRA to Russia in 2015, turned to Burchfield, a fellow Tennessean.
Two months after his Russia trip, Gregory emailed Burchfield about the upcoming, Feb. 2016, National Prayer Breakfast. The Finance Committee obtained that email, which reads:
"Tim Burchfield, As you know, I have told you that two of my new good friends from Russia will be attending the National Prayer Breakfast this year & they are very excited about it. They are Mr. Alexander Torshin & Ms. Maria Butina. Their Bio’s [sic] are included with this email & Maria’s email address is included as well. Her cell phone number is [redacted]. At your permission, I have extended an invitation for them to join the East Tennessee contingent for dinner the night before the breakfast (Wednesday evening, 2/3). Tim’s cell phone number is [redacted]. I leave it in your capable hands to inform our Russian guests & arrange places & times for the Wednesday evening dinner & thank you for showing them the same hospitality that Jesus would show & that you have shown to me. I believe they may also be interested in Thursday mid-day & afternoon tour happenings & invitations if they don’t end up going to NRA headquarters. Thanks for your help with this! Best Wishes for another successful Breakfast & send my regards to Doug Coe & family & the Fellowship."
Doug Coe, Burleigh’s father-in-law, was the leader of The Family at the time (Coe died in 2017). The report doesn't say what, if anything, Torshin and Butina ended up doing with Burchfield (Burchfield did not immediately respond to a request for comment). And the report identifies Burchfield only as “an associate [of Gregory] from Tennessee,” without revealing his decades of work for both The Family and Chick-fil-A." https://tyt.com/stories/2E4lb3zIDV37rdUAwsh1zn/SNZ5EQVQrU7ZMiYHaz9Zk
Torshin related:
[...]Washington (CNN) — At least 16 associates of Donald Trump had contacts with Russians during the 2016 campaign or transition, according to public statements, court filings, CNN reporting, and reporting from other news outlets. [...] 4. Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. attended the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. Around that time, he had at least three phone calls with Emin Agalarov, the Russian pop star who helped arrange the meeting. Trump Jr. also was briefly introduced to Russian banker Alexander Torshin at a dinner during the National Rifle Association convention. Federal prosecutors said in 2018 that Torshin was the handler of alleged Russian spy Maria Butina. February, 2019 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=147034190
Alleged Russian agent's infiltration of GOP circles anything but subtle [...] She and Torshin were regular attendees at exclusive events surrounding the NRA's annual meetings. She had attended two National Prayer Breakfasts and one Conservative Political Action Conference. She attended a post-Thanksgiving barbecue at South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford's family farm. P - "Eventually Russians are going to need people on the ground here -- whether they're witting or unwitting Americans -- to help them with their propaganda operations," said Hall, the retired CIA chief of Russia. August, 2018 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=142659689
FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump WASHINGTON - The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency, two sources familiar with the matter have told McClatchy. FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said. It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections. [...] Last February when Torshin visited Washington, Rockefeller heir and conservative patron George O’Neill Jr. hosted a fancy four-hour dinner for the banker on Capitol Hill, an event that drew Rohrabacher, Erickson and other big names on the right. Rohrabacher has labeled Torshin as “conservatives’ favorite Russian,” Torshin was in Washington at the time to lead his country’s delegation to the National Prayer Breakfast, where Trump spoke. The banker also was slated to see the presidentat a meet-and-greet event prior to a White House breakfast, but Torshin’s invitation was canceled after the White House learned of his alleged mob connections, Yahoo News reported. Torshin’s involvement with the NRA may have begun in 2013 when he attended the group’s convention in Houston. Keene, the ex-NRA leader and an avid hunter, was instrumental in building a relationship with the Russian, according to multiple conservative sources. Keene also helped lead a high-level NRA delegation to Moscow in December 2015 for a week of lavish meals and meetings with Russian business and political leaders. The week’s festivities included a visit to a Russian gun company and a meeting with a senior Kremlin official and wealthy Russians, according to a member of the delegation, Arnold Goldschlager, a California doctor who has been active in NRA programs to raise large donations. Others on the trip included Joe Gregory, who runs the NRA’s Ring of Freedom program for elite donors who chip in checks of $1 million and upwards, Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke and Pete Brownell, a chief executive of a gun company and longtime NRA board member. In a phone interview, Goldschlager described the trip as a “people-to-people mission,” and said he was impressed with Torshin — who, he noted, hosted both a “welcoming” dinner for the NRA contingent and another one. “They were killing us with vodka and the best Russian food,” Goldschlager said. “The trip exceeded my expectations by logarithmic levels.” January 2018, towards bottom .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138054866
Top Russian Official Tried to Broker ‘Backdoor’ Meeting Between Trump and Putin [Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime] December, 2017 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=136701381
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