Jury finds NRA, its ex-chief misspent millions

NEW YORK — In a sweeping rebuke of the National Rifle Association, the nation’s most prominent gun rights group, a Manhattan jury ruled Friday that its leaders had engaged in a yearslong pattern of financial misconduct and corruption.

The jury, after a week of deliberations, found that the group’s former leader, Wayne LaPierre, had used NRA funds to pay for personal expenses, including vacations, luxury flights for his relatives and yacht rides, and that two other top executives had failed in their duties to the nonprofit organization.

The case, brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, touched the uppermost echelons of the gunrights group. In addition to LaPierre, the defendants included the group’s former treasurer, Wilson Phillips, and its general counsel, John Frazer, who still works for the group. The NRA itself was also a defendant, and was found to have ignored whistleblower complaints and submitted false filings to the state.

The NRA, founded after the Civil War to promote marksmanship, has been one of the most powerful lobbying groups in American politics, pushing for an expansive view of Second Amendment rights and fighting any measure meant to restrain gun ownership.

Its success meant that firearms increasingly defined the terms of American political debate and the nation’s very culture. People began to regularly carry firearms at demonstrations and protests. In the face of terrifying and deadly school shootings, children learned their ABCs along with how to hide and defend themselves. And the steady drumbeat of bloodshed continued: This year has seen at least nine mass shootings in which four or more, not including the attacker.

Still, the NRA had suffered setbacks, defections and internal strife in recent years, even as the debates over gun rights increasingly moved to the state level, with more conservative states seeking to enhance access to such weapons and liberal bastions, like New York, trying to stem the tide.

The decision in the suit brought by James was undoubtedly a low-water mark for the group, but another high for her. It was her second major victory in a week, following a judgment of at least $454 million, including interest, levied against former President Donald Trump in a civil fraud trial.

Jurors found LaPierre had misspent $5.4 million. He has repaid some of that sum, but must still repay $4.35 million. Phillips must repay $2 million.

The judge overseeing the case will decide in a second phase of the trial whether a monitor should be installed to keep watch on the NRA’s administration of charitable assets, and whether LaPierre and Phillips should be barred from serving as officers or directors of any other New York nonprofits, James said in her statement.

But the group will also get some benefit from the verdict. Because it is a nonprofit, fines paid by the defendants will be returned to the organization. The outcome will hardly be a financial panacea, given that the NRA has spent tens of millions of dollars a year in legal fees defending this and other cases.

In a lengthy statement released Friday evening, the NRA put a positive spin on the verdict, saying that it showed “it was victimized by certain former vendors and ‘insiders’ who abused the trust placed in them.”