NY’s attorney general sues to dissolve NRA
Prosecutor: Gun group ‘fraught with fraud’
The leaders of the powerful National Rifle Association were accused Thursday of participating in massive fraud that skimmed at least $64 million from the gun rights group to finance lavish lifestyles featuring private jet travel to exclusive resorts, according to a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who seeks to shut down the organization.
The civil action, which names longtime NRA chief Wayne LaPierre and three other executives, details an array of alleged wrongdoing that severely weakened the nearly 150-year-old organization.
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James said. “The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above
the law.”
The NRA has been chartered in New York since the late 19th century, which grants James significant leverage to shut it down under state laws governing charities and nonprofit groups.
James accused the NRA leaders of wasteful, unchecked spending that transformed a $27.8 million surplus in 2015 to a $36.3 million net deficit in 2018.
The NRA, which quickly filed a countersuit against the attorney general, cast her action as a politically motivated, “premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend.”
“You could have set your watch by it,” NRA President Carolyn Meadows said. “It’s a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda. This has been a power grab by a political opportunist – a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta. Our members won’t be intimidated or bullied in their defense of political and constitutional freedom.”
Meadows said the organization would “not shrink from this fight.”
“We will confront it and prevail,” she said.
In its lawsuit, the conservative organization accused James, a Democrat, of attempting to fulfill a campaign promise to “take down the NRA.”
“To silence the NRA’s advocacy, and neutralize it as an opposing political force, James promised that she would leverage ‘the constitutional power as an attorney general to regulate charities’ to instigate a fishing expedition into the NRA’s ‘legitimacy,’ ” the organization claimed.
As the James lawsuit was announced, President Donald Trump’s photo and the NRA’s endorsement of the president’s reelection was prominently featured on the group’s website.
Trump called the lawsuit “a terrible thing” and suggested the NRA should “move to Texas and lead a ... beautiful life.” He said the group had been “decimated” by costs of recent legal actions and called it a “sad” situation.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted that the NRA would be welcomed “with open arms.”
The NRA has built a reputation as the fiercest gun rights advocate in the nation since its incorporation in 1871, asserting itself as a major force in national politics and government.
The controversial organization, which boasts more than 5 million members, has faced financial and leadership turmoil, headlined by a public power struggle between LaPierre and NRA President Oliver North that ended in North’s ouster last year.
James’ lawsuit accuses the NRA and its leaders of lavish spending and disregard for state and federal laws. Among the allegations:
•LaPierre, the NRA’s chief executive and executive vice president since 1991, and his family are accused of traveling to the Bahamas on a private charter at least eight times over three years, costing the NRA $500,000. On some of those trips, an NRA vendor allowed him to use a 107-foot yacht.
•As the face of the organization, LaPierre is accused of spending more than $3.6 million in NRA funds on car services and travel consultants in the past two years, as well as teeing up a post-employment contract worth more than $17 million.
•Former treasurer and CFO Wilson “Woody” Phillips allegedly set up a $1.8 million consulting deal for himself just before his retirement and oversaw an arrangement in which Ackerman McQueen, an advertising and public relations firm, paid for NRA leaders’ entertainment and travel costs before billing the organization. That arrangement is the subject of a separate legal dispute.
Also named in the lawsuit are former NRA chief of staff Joshua Powell and current Corporate Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer.
“Our members won’t be intimidated or bullied in their defense of political and constitutional freedom.” NRA President Carolyn Meadows