New York Attorney General Sues the N.R.A.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James announces that the state is suing the National Rifle Association during a press conference, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020, in New York.

Summary Transcript

Brian recaps New York Attorney General Letitia James' announcement of a lawsuit seeking the dissolution of the N.R.A.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. All right, here's that Letitia James news. The Attorney General of New York has filed the lawsuit to dissolve the N.R.A. I'm going to read from her press release which just went out. She's still holding her news conference right now as Attorney General of New York, Letitia James is announcing this lawsuit to dissolve the N.R.A. We've got the press release so I'll read from this. This says AG James’ action will hold powerful gun group accountable. Lawsuit details years of illegal self-dealing that funded lavish lifestyle of N.R.A leaders.

It says New York Attorney General Letitia James today filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association, the largest and most influential pro-gun organization in the nation. Attorney General James charges the organization with illegal conduct because of their diversion of millions of dollars away from the charitable mission of the organization for personal use by senior leadership, awarding contracts to the financial gain of close associates and family, and appearing to dole out lucrative no-show contracts to former employees in order to buy their silence and continued loyalty.

Isn't this interesting? Originally, you may or may not support the N.R.A politically, but at least from the top lines of this press release, Attorney General James is filing a lawsuit to dissolve the N.R.A not because of what they do on a gun policy level, but because of corruption. Let's take a closer look.

This continues. The suit specifically charges the N.R.A as a whole, as well as Executive Vice-President Wayne LaPierre, former Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Wilson "Woody" Phillips, former Chief of Staff and the Executive Director of General Operations Joshua Powell, and Corporate Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer with failing to manage the N.R.A's funds and failing to follow numerous state and federal laws, contributing to the loss of more than $64 million in just three years for the N.R.A.

There are particular she's naming names. You probably heard of Wayne LaPierre even if you didn't hear of the other ones and saying, in effect, that the N.R.A is bilking its own members. If there was a loss of $64 million in three years as a result of this, as she alleges. Now she says this alleged corruption contributed to the loss of more than $64 million in just three years. How much he contributed? I guess she will flesh out over time, but these are the accusations.

Here's more. Again, I'm reading from the press release from the Attorney General's office. In the complaint, Attorney General James lays out dozens of examples where the four individual defendants failed to fulfill their fiduciary duty to the N.R.A and used millions upon millions from N.R.A reserves for personal use, including trips for them and their families to the Bahamas, private jets, expensive meals, and other private travel. In addition to shuttering the N.R.A's doors, Attorney General James seeks to recoup millions in lost assets and to stop the four individual defendants from serving on the board of any not-for-profit charitable organizations in the state of New York again.

Also speed reading this press release is WNYC legal editor Jami Floyd who's hopping on with us for a few minutes now. Hi, Jami? I think Jami Floyd is hopping on with us for a few minutes. Do we have Jami? All right. We'll try to get Jami up in just a second. I apologize again for the technical problems in these last few minutes.

I'll continue with some background from the press release which says, since 1871, the N.R.A has operated as the New York registered 501(c)4 not-for-profit, charitable corporation. Under state law, not-for-profit charitable corporations are required to register and file annual financial reports with the Charities Bureau in the Office of the Attorney General. The assets are required to be used in a way that serves the interest of N.R.A membership and that advanced the organization's charitable mission. However, as today's complaint lays out, the N.R.A is alleged to have fostered a culture of non-compliance and disregard for internal controls that led to the waste and loss of millions and assets and contributed to the N.R.A reaching its current deteriorated financial state.

It says, the N.R.A's internal policies were repeatedly not followed and were even blatantly ignored by senior leaders. Furthermore, the N.R.A's board audit committee was negligent in its duty to ensure appropriate, competent, and judicious stewardship of assets by N.R.A leadership. Specifically, the committee failed to assure standard fiscal controls, failed to respond adequately to whistleblowers, affirmatively took steps to conceal the nature and scope of whistleblower concerns from external auditors, and failed to review potential conflicts of interest for employees.

Now, I'm going to read down. I'm going to skip ahead in my first look, and I hope my sight-reading has been acceptable folks like a musician sometimes sight reads. I am sight-reading a press release here. I'm looking to see if she gets into any policy implications of this, and I don't. I'm sure this will come up as a defense that Letitia James is a Democratic Party politician and whose interest it is to be tough on the N.R.A because of policy disagreements, and that will undoubtedly be a response from the N.R.A at some point, but she's laying out very specific charges without mentioning policy at all in this entire lengthy press release according to my quick eyeing of it. Without mentioning policy issues at all, just these very specific sounding, allegations about financial mismanagement, and in effect corruption.

The end of the press release has a section called Proposed Resolution. It says, as a result of all the allegations mentioned above, Attorney General James seeks to dissolve the N.R.A; asks the court to order these officers of the N.R.A, LaPierre, Phillips, Powell, and Frazer to make full restitution of funds they unlawfully profited and salaries earned while employees pay penalties; recover illegal and unauthorized payments to the four individuals; remove LaPierre and Frazer from the N.R.A's leadership, Phillips and Powell are no longer employed by the N.R.A; and ensure none of the four individual defendants can ever again serve on the board of a charity in New York. It says, Attorney General James began her inquiry into the N.R.A in February 2019 so I guess she's been looking at this for a long time.

This seems to be a civil suit. This does not appear to be criminal charges, which the Attorney General also could file if she found criminal malfeasance. This seems to be a civil suit, demanding restitution and the dissolution of the N.R.A, of course, it's the National Rifle Association. I presume this would not just apply to its presence in New York. This is a lawsuit for the dissolution of the N.R.A.

I'll take the Wayne LaPierre part of this in particular since he's the most well known. He's the Executive Vice-President. This says, in his nearly three decades as executive vice-president, Wayne LaPierre ran the day-to-day operations of the N.R.A and exploited the organization for his and his family's financial benefits, and the benefit of a close circle of N.R.A staff, board members, and vendors. Then it gets into some alleged particulars such as LaPierre spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of the N.R.As charitable assets for private plane trips for himself and his family, including extended family when he was not present. It says, he visited the Bahamas by private air charter at least eight times in an approximate three-year period with his family at a cost of more than $500,000 to the N.R.A." It says, on many of those trips, LaPierre and his family were gifted the use of a 100-foot yacht owned by an N.R.A vendor. In addition, it says, he traveled to Africa with his wife for all-expense-paid safaris, gifted by an N.R.A vendor. It says he spent millions on unwarranted travel consultants for decades, including for the booking of luxury black car services, spending more than $3.6 million in the last two years alone. Secured a post-employment contract for himself with the N.R.A without board approval, currently valued at more than $17 million.

Listeners, there you have some details from New York State Attorney General, Letitia James press release just out in the last few minutes seeking nothing less than the full dissolution of the National Rifle Association based on the charges detailed there. Thought you'd like to know and there we go. We apologize for the phone glitches that we had a few minutes ago. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Thanks to everybody for listening today.

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