MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Calls Out the Trump Admin's Stunning Move to Let the NRA and Other Groups Conceal Donors

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow pointed out a little-noticed story Tuesday in the fallout of President Donald Trump's disastrous meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Monday, the same day of the summit in which Trump cozied up to the authoritarian leader while criticizing the United States, the Justice Department revealed it had arrested a Russian citizen named Mariia Butina with ties to the National Rifle Association for acting as a foreign agent.

And also on the same day, Maddow reported Tuesday, the administration made another perplexing move.

"Yesterday, literally on the same day a criminal complaint was unsealed against a Russian citizen accused of using the NRA as a conduit to influence U.S. political leaders on behalf of Russia — literally on that same day — the Treasury Department and the Trump administration announced new rules that would allow the NRA to stop disclosing its donors to the IRS," she said.

This was particularly notable, Maddow explained, "amid these red-hot concerns — and what appear to be open investigations — into whether or not the NRA may have not just been used as a conduit for Russian influence but potentially as a conduit for Russian money into the presidential election."

She added: "If Congress was looking for something constructive to do here, instead of just sending sad tweets, they could set about stopping the Treasury from making that change. At least, not until we are clear what's going here, right?"

Watch the clip below: