Wayne LaPierre survives NRA’s revolt

Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, has confronted threats from all sides this year.

He faced a revolt from the NRA’s top lobbyist, its president, its longtime advertising firm, and several board members and donors that quickly became public. New documents reviewed by The New York Times show that the effort against him was even wider in scope, drawing in three outside law firms working for the NRA and at least one in-house attorney. A wave of embarrassing leaks showed that LaPierre billed an NRA contractor hundreds of thousands of dollars for bespoke suits and foreign travel, as well as some of his wife’s makeup costs.

Then this month, two mass shootings galvanized the gun control movement and prompted President Donald Trump to float the possibility of expanded background checks, which is anathema to the gun lobby.

But LaPierre, who has run the NRA since 1991, has so far survived all the internal challenges. And he has continued to successfully advance his group’s uncompromising agenda. This week he appeared to personally persuade Trump to resist significant measures sought by Democrats and gun control advocates.

Now LaPierre is continuing to purge opponents. Thursday, the NRA dismissed its longtime outside counsel, Charles J. Cooper, the chairman of the Washington law firm Cooper & Kirk, people with knowledge of the decision said. A second outside counsel and a top in-house counsel resigned. The departures come after an internal NRA inquiry showed that the lawyers were involved in an effort to undermine LaPierre.

The NRA also is considering halting payments to its former second in command, Christopher Cox, who left the NRA in June but is still on the payroll, said the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal matters.

The NRA’s apparent success in fending off stricter gun regulations represents an important show of strength for LaPierre after months of damaging turmoil. And it shows that even in a diminished state, the group wields vast influence over the Republican Party, and particularly Trump, after spending more than $30 million to help get him elected.

NRA officials have said the rebellion was sparked by LaPierre’s decision to pursue an internal audit of contractors. The infighting became public in April, when Oliver North departed as the group’s president after seeking his own financial review and being accused by LaPierre of trying to extort him. Trump urged the group to “stop the internal fighting, & get back to GREATNESS — FAST!”

Previous reporting by The Times and others has chronicled the internal tumult around North’s departure. But the new documents show a deeper level of coordination than was previously known in the effort against LaPierre, with extensive discussions between North’s allies and the NRA’s own outside counsels. Cooper and other lawyers exchanged emails urging leaks and countermeasures that would undermine LaPierre’s strategy. At one point in April Cooper wrote another lawyer in frustration, saying, “No one on our side will leak.”

The documents also show how LaPierre scrambled to shore up his standing, reaching out to board members for support. And handwritten notes taken by an aide to LaPierre, scrawled on a yellow legal pad, detailed what the NRA says were threats made by North to force LaPierre to resign. There would be revelations about “sexual offenses” by one of LaPierre’s colleagues, about spending on “Wayne/clothing” and luxury travel. North sought the “immediate resignation of Wayne,” the notes said, adding, “Window is short.”

Cooper, in a statement Thursday, said, “Throughout the over three decades in which I have represented the NRA, I have adhered to the highest standards of professionalism.”