The NRA was in disarray in 2019 as infighting between Oliver North and Wayne LaPierre hit the media, who are notorious opponents of the gun lobby group. Dana Loesch supported North. There were accusations on both sides of wasteful, lavish spending. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is anti-Second Amendment, saw an opportunity to destroy the NRA.
The NRA moved from New York to Texas, but the lawsuit continued.
A Manhattan jury in the civil corruption case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against the National Rifle Association determined that Wayne LaPierre’s violation of his duties cost the NRA $5,400,000.
The decision came at the end of five days of deliberations.
James brought forth the lawsuit in 2020 and named the NRA, former CEO Wayne LaPierre, former CFO Wilson “Woody” Philips, and general counsel John Frazer as defendants.
The attorney general’s office argued the executives used millions in company funds on luxuries and trips. The company wasn’t concerned, so why was she? She wanted to take out the NRA.
DOMESTIC TERRORISTS FOR SUPPORTING THE SECOND AMENDMENT
The NRA said the case was politically motivated by an attorney general who campaigned on taking out the NRA. James was elected to office in November 2018. She publicly slammed the NRA in the lead-up to her becoming New York’s chief law officer.
“The NRA is an organ of deadly propaganda masquerading as a charity for public good,” James wrote in a campaign press release in 2018. “Its agenda is set by gun-makers who think arming teachers is a better idea than making it harder for kids to get military grade guns.”
She called the NRA a “terrorist organization” and a “criminal enterprise” in comments to Ebony.
In August of 2020, she filed a dissolution lawsuit to break up the NRA over alleged corruption. A New York Supreme Court justice ultimately blocked James’ effort to dissolve the organization in a 2022 decision. It didn’t meet the requirements of ordering a “corporate death penalty.”
That was James’s goal.
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