U.S.A. — The National Rifle Association has received yet another judicial slap-down. Lead counsel Bill Brewer, along with attorneys for Wayne LaPierre, Secretary John Frazer, former Treasurer Woody Phillips, and former executive Josh Powell filed yet another raft of petitions calling for the suit to be dismissed or seriously throttled. In an order issued on June 8, the judge in the case rejected virtually all of these motions and petitions, most of which had already been previously rejected by the court. Not surprisingly, Judge Cohen, who has been very fair and reasonable in his handling of the case, after rejecting the defense motions and affirming several petitions from the plaintiff, NY AG Letitia James, ordered that all parties involved “submit a joint letter proposing a trial plan and schedule so that the Court can reserve the necessary dates” for trial. The ruling is just one more in a long line of defeats for the NRA, with Brewer at the helm of its legal strategy.
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past four years – as is apparently the case with many NRA members and the entire NRA Board of Directors – the Attorney General of New York filed charges against the Association and several of its top executives in August of 2020 after the publication of a damning investigative report in April of 2019. The New York AG charged Association’s paid staff and elected officers with diverting charitable funds away from their intended purposes and into the pockets of NRA brass and their pals.
There is no question that the New York Attorney General is an ambitious, partisan politician who campaigned on a promise to destroy the NRA, and it is undeniable that her pursuit of the Association is very much politically motivated. In their talking points, the NRA “leadership” restates that accurate analysis, and goes on to dismiss everything raised in the suit as just a politically-motivated attack with no substance. The trouble is that dismissal is a lie. There is a great deal of substance to the suits.
When James’ investigators started looking into the organization, they found a seething den of corruption. In short, virtually all of the charges brought by the NY AG are backed up by documentary evidence and appalling levels of self-incrimination on the part of NRA “leaders.”
The sad truth is that NRA executives and their cronies have been blatantly pocketing tens of millions of dollars from the NRA for years. Meanwhile, the NRA Board of Directors, who hold a fiduciary responsibility to the members of the Association, have willfully looked away, abdicating their responsibilities, instead standing resolutely behind Wayne LaPierre and his fellow miscreants.
To make matters worse, the NRA Board had multiple opportunities to head off the whole mess long before the New York probe became public. They could have relatively easily saved the Association well over $150 million in actual costs, and prevented the steep declines in membership, revenue, and political clout that has resulted over the past four years. Had they fulfilled their fiduciary responsibilities by suspending the accused executives, including LaPierre and anyone closely associated with him, appointing an Interim EVP/CEO to oversee day-to-day operations, and bringing in an outside auditor to conduct a thorough and transparent audit and investigation, they could have either proven that the allegations were false, allowing the accused executives to be restored without a pall of doubt hanging over their heads or discovered that the accusations were true, allowing them to take appropriate corrective actions. Instead, the Board rallied around Wayne LaPierre, reelected him, and pushed out anyone who dared to raise questions or challenge the status quo.
This failure on the part of the NRA Board to take substantive action to expose and correct any problems directly resulted in the loss of about one-third of NRA’s Annual Members (the financial lifeblood of the organization), and a decline in annual revenue of approximately 50% (from a high of over $380 million to a current total of less than $200 million), not to mention the substantial loss of political clout and credibility. The NRA is currently spending significantly more money on Brewer Attorneys & Counselors, the single law firm defending the corrupt actions of the Association’s “leadership,” approximately one-third of the Association’s total annual budget. These legal and PR costs have been growing exponentially over the past three years. To be clear, this is not money going toward defense of the Second Amendment, competitions, range development, or educational work. This money is being spent to defend against disturbingly valid charges of corruption, cronyism, and self-dealing among top NRA executives.
To put this into perspective, the NRA has cut its spending on Education and Training by over $100 million, from $176 million per year to only $75 million. Meanwhile, in 2022 the Association paid the Brewer firm over $60 million – more than twice the total annual revenue of all other national gun rights organizations combined.
Let that sink in for a moment. Internet warriors constantly suggest that one or more of the other national rights organizations can and will replace the NRA. Bluntly, that is not going to happen. At least not soon enough. The total combined revenue of the Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America, the National Association for Gun Rights, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the Firearms Policy Coalition would amount to almost half of what the NRA paid to the Brewer firm just last year. And the gains in membership and revenue that other groups have seen in recent years is nowhere close to the amount the NRA’s revenue and membership has declined.
No other group can offer the wide variety of programs and services traditionally offered by the NRA, yet the NRA is actively squandering that advantage by making wholesale cuts to those programs and services. At the same time, the Association is massively increasing spending on lawyers.
Worse yet, for all the money the Brewer firm has been raking in from NRA coffers, all they have to show is an almost unbroken string of courtroom defeats. There have been a few technical or procedural victories. They succeeded in getting the judge to agree that dissolution of the NRA – which the NY AG originally asked for – would not be an appropriate resolution to the charges in that case. They also prevailed in a suit blocking former NRA President Oliver North from charging the NRA for his personal legal expenses in related matters. North had been pushed out of his position as President after he had raised questions about the millions of dollars per month the NRA was paying to the Brewer firm. But those minor skirmishes are negligible victories compared to the crushing defeats NRA has been handed in the New York case and other matters.
Along with the NY AG suit, the Brewer firm represented the NRA in suits against the Association’s former PR company, Ackerman McQueen, which apparently not coincidentally, was founded and headed by Mr. Brewer’s estranged father-in-law, Angus McQueen. They eventually settled those suits with a payment of $12 million from NRA to Ack-Mac. NRA and Brewer also sued and were counter-sued by Ack-Mac executive Tony Makris over payments to his company Under Wild Skies, which produced a hunting show sponsored by NRA, and which featured NRA executives and Board members going on lavish hunts around the world (at NRA expense). They lost that suit as well, having to pay Makris. Brewer also represented the NRA in a suit filed by former NRA President Oliver North, asking the court to prevent the NRA Board of Directors from kicking him out of the Association. North won an injunction in that case, pending the outcome of the NY suit.
In one of their most glaring and downright stupid defeats, the Brewer firm represented NRA in a suit trying to avoid paying Chris Cox, the former Executive Director of NRA-ILA, the NRA’s lobbying division, his contractually obligated severance package. Cox was pushed out of his position in 2020 after it was discovered that he had suggested that LaPierre might need to resign for the good of the Association. He was accused of “disloyalty” and charged with participating in an “attempted coup against LaPierre. Cox’s contract called for two years worth of his annual salary, valued at a total of around $2.5 million. In the end, NRA had to pay the full severance, along with all of Cox’s legal fees. When combined with NRA’s own legal fees in the matter, the whole debacle cost NRA members over $10 million. Brewer wasn’t satisfied with that though; after losing that case, he and NRA turned around and sued the firm that arbitrated the case, claiming bias and again losing at the expense of NRA members.
Brewer was also in charge of a First Amendment “restraint of trade” suit against the state of New York, which Wayne LaPierre reported in 2020, had cost the Association over $100 million. They lost that suit and have now appealed the decision.
Then there was also the ill-advised attempt at entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which appears to have been another clever and extremely expensive idea from Brewer. Not only did the failed bankruptcy cost the Association millions of dollars before it was finally thrown out by an angry bankruptcy judge, it opened the Association’s books and records to the NY AG’s investigators, and provided opportunities for top NRA executives and key Board members to be questioned under oath.
The lowlight of that proceeding was former Treasurer Woody Phillips repeatedly invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Philips invoked the Fifth more than 60 times in his testimony. The Chair and Vice Chair of the NRA’s Audit Committee (the committee of the Board tasked with preventing financial chicanery and conflicts of interest) probably should have followed Phillips’ lead. Instead, they both admitted under oath that they had steered outside auditors away from Wayne LaPierre’s office and had not scrutinized LaPierre’s books based on their personal friendships with him. Those two, Charles Cotton and David Coy, are still Chair and Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee, and they also serve as President and Second Vice President of the Board, respectively. In fact, in April of this year, the Board passed an amendment to the Association’s Bylaws, allowing Cotton to serve an almost unprecedented third term in the presidency. At the same time, First Vice President Willes Lee, who would have normally been elected to the presidency, was passed over and removed from the chairs, replaced by former Congressman Bob Barr. Apparently, Lee, like North before him, was asking too many uncomfortable questions and refusing to go along with secretive schemes.
Lee has been alluding to this in recent posts on Twitter and Facebook, in which he has questioned the lack of concern among fellow Board members regarding the way he was ousted, the ongoing plans to sell the Association’s Virginia headquarters building, and the secretive planning among officers and executive staff regarding a planned move to Texas and a variety of other major issues that should – by law and NRA policy – be under the purview of the Board.
Should NRA settle w NYAG? Can we settle? What would each get/give up?
(Asking for Board of Directors & 4 million NRA members.) pic.twitter.com/f79I92YhwS— Willes Lee (@WillesLee) June 27, 2023
Public is only place we hear of NRA relo. For real or to throw off scent of the move, or no move?
We’re not telling Relocation Committee nor Board bc, we’re the NRA. Especially not going to allow staff to prepare bc … we’re the …. https://t.co/9jBqPWYp5T— Willes Lee (@WillesLee) June 27, 2023
The question that keeps coming up is, “Why isn’t the Board of Directors doing anything?”
That’s definitely the $100 million question. Not only are they allowing the NRA to be driven into bankruptcy by an overpriced and demonstrably ineffective attorney, but their inaction also opens them up to personal, civil, and possibly criminal charges for failing to adequately attend to their legally binding fiduciary responsibilities.
Academics are using the NRA as a case study of how not to run a nonprofit organization and have written articles anticipating a total financial collapse of the organization. Yet members of the Board continue to allow themselves to be kept in the dark, refuse to even ask about what’s really going on, and seem oblivious to the fact that they are very likely to be the next targets of Letitia James’ crusade against the Association.
James wants the NRA destroyed. The judge has taken dissolution off the table. There remains some hope that the Association can be rebuilt after the almost certain loss it is about to suffer in the New York case, but James retains the option of doing even more damage by going after individual members of the Board. Incredibly, those Board members don’t seem to realize that they are completely naked, vulnerable to legal attacks, with no substantive insurance to help cover their legal expenses and no reasonable excuse for their failure to act on the information that has been right in front of them for years.
Many close followers of this slow-motion train wreck believe the Association’s “leaders” are again preparing to file bankruptcy. A couple of successful events, along with the Biden administration’s ongoing attacks on guns and gun owners, have provided a short-term boost to NRA finances, but it is not nearly enough to offset the years of decline and the Association’s dramatically out-of-balance balance sheet.
Whatever these “leaders” have up their sleeves, they only have a few months left to play those cards because the judge in the NY case has ordered all parties to begin working out trial dates for this October or November. Whether bankruptcy, other delays, or attempts to reach a settlement, time is running out. Up to this point, Letitia James has been happy to go along with Brewer’s delaying tactics and allow the case to drag out. She is well aware of the NRA’s financial situation and has been more than willing to see NRA’s resources dwindle as they are shoveled into Brewer’s pockets.
Through all of the twists and turns of the past five years, there are just two things that can be looked at as constants: In spite of accusations and supporting evidence, Wayne LaPierre remains the Chief Executive and figurehead of the NRA, and regardless of ever-increasing costs and ever more embarrassing losses in court, William Brewer keeps getting paid. (On an interesting side note, the Brewer firm was recently highlighted in legal journals for bucking the trend in the industry by paying their attorneys significantly better than most other firms. Starting salary for new associates in the Brewer firm is being reported as $250,000 per year.)
One case not mentioned above is a suit against NRA originated by NRA member David Del’Aquila. That suit has reached a 3rd Amended Complaint and will be seeking certification as a Class Action in the coming weeks. The suit asserts fraud on the part of NRA and its leadership in their fundraising tactics and financial dealings. The case hasn’t received much media attention over the past year or so, but it has been chugging along, again with Brewer representing the NRA, engaging in delaying tactics, and, as always, getting paid handsomely for his work.
The NY suit is supposed to go to trial by October or November. Observers are almost unanimous in the belief that if the case does finally get to trial, the NRA and the named defendants are going to lose badly. NRA and Brewer are rapidly running out of options for delays and sidetracking the case.
A reckoning is coming, and it will not be pretty.
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona, and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org.
As a Life Member of the NRA, bouhgt my membership several decades ago. I stopped all financial support many years ago. When it became apparent that the members were nothing more to the leadership than a $$$ source to allow then to further their own desires. The leadership became just another cog in the wheel of the political game associated with going along to get along in D.C. politics. I have been sending my financial support to mostly local organization (IFC) within my state, As well as the GOA and the 2nd A Foundation. The NRA has become a bulbous… Read more »
Same here. Stopped a ll financial support just a couple of years after I became a Life Member.
Lapierre needs to go, yet the Board’s unwavering support for him is just plain astounding.
The Board needs to go too.
Myself as well. It disturbs me no end that they could be helping us with the raft of SCOTUS wins we’re getting but instead they waste the money.
we need one that says bill of rights not privileges(bumper sticker)
warren buffett paid for odummer to be in office so he or his people are behind this bs
Ooh Rah!
There was a time, not all that long ago, when the NRA could have been saved by ousting LaPierre and some of the self-aggrandizing board members. That moment has unfortunately passed. There was a time when I was a proud NRA member. That time has also passed. Now, the NRA elite are simply scavenging the bones of a once-great organization looking to save themselves and to steal whatever they can on the way out the door. It may take awhile for a true gun rights organization (like SAF, GOA, CCRKBA and smaller but first rate local organizations) to achieve the… Read more »
I disagree with that. It is redeemable but it’s going to take some honest work.
It would be quicker and possibly more effective if all of the groups were to create an umbrella and form a coalition.
Its clear the NRA plan is litigation induced bankruptcy. Nothing else explains it. Anyone else would have fired their lawyers long ago. The plan by the NRA, as I see it is to burn thru every dollar, sell every asset, and end up in the Red, on the street and homeless. Then they will reinvent themselves in Texas under a new name, with new leadership, and recruit unsuspecting new members. As an Endowment member I stopped all contributions to the NRA when the revelations of the Lapierres excesses and the Boards malfeasance were proven true. Our enemies are growing in… Read more »
send your money effing losers…
GOA life member here/
I purchased a lifetime membership to the NRA. At this time I really wish I could get a refund. I also got a lifetime membership to the GOA, that’s where I’d put my backing.
When my biological dad died in the early 1990’s, I had intended to take part of my inheritance and posthumously buy life memberships for him and my grandfather as a way of honoring them and supporting the NRA. As luck would have it, my portion was much smaller than I anticipated and I had to abort that plan. In retrospect, I am grateful that I did not waste money on such a fool’s errand as it would have been.
While there is no doubt the NRA has done good it has also done a lot of damage by negotiating and ignoring and playing ball with politicians. It has become a mess in direction and crooked. It flat sold out on several occasions and I’ve lived through it to sadly see personally. Trust in it just like the federal government is damaged beyond repair.
as a patriot life member i have stopped any financial support until Wayne Lapierre is gone. i have let my instructors credentials run out also. our only hope is a favorble ruling from SCOTUS in the cases soon to be announced. anything i get in the mail goes straight to file 13.
Burn the place down. “The sad truth is that NRA executives and their cronies have been blatantly pocketing tens of millions of dollars from the NRA for years. Meanwhile, the NRA Board of Directors, who hold a fiduciary responsibility to the members of the Association, have willfully looked away, abdicating their responsibilities, instead standing resolutely behind Wayne LaPierre and his fellow miscreants.”
NRA the company blows ponies; and Wayne LaPew does the swallowing.
I am STILL awaiting someone who has the ability to LIST the times the NRA assisted the government in the INFRINGEMENT of American Citizens’ RIGHTS! IF memory serves me correct, there are about 10 or more times the NRA gave INFRINGEMENT advice which the government followed successfully. IE; BUMP Stock, Wait time before pickup of articles, NICS infringement, etc. etc. etc. .
Remember NFA and GCA.
They played the same card both times: It would have been worse without our help.
The current federal law on so called “cop killer” bullets was crafted with the aid of NRA as an alternative to the much worse bill pushed by Rep. Mario Biaggi.
https://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0709/070935.html
Only one more example of NRA’s habit of using an “it could have been worse” excuse for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
The NRA Insisted that shotguns and rifles with barrels under 16 inches be placed on the NFA. That should tell you all you need to know.
NFA, GCA, Mulford Act, Hughes Amendment, import bans, NICS, bumpstock ban, red flag laws, and FixNICS were all supported, and in some cases written, by the NRA. All of that assisted the government in infringing on our rights.
Wrong. NRA never supported the Hughes Amendment nor any import ban.
and if you feel the need to continually repost what the old guard supported versus their current direction in opposing every unjust legislation you have zip knowledge or is it big time dementia?
asok tho, going from the above comments your ignorance is not alone.
yes, WLP and the majority of the BOD needs to go but no other 2A organization has done more for all of here or has more clout to combat sleezy liberals nationwide than the NRA.
“Old guard”? Hughes, import bans, NICS, bumpstocks, red flag laws, and FixNICS have all happened on Wayne’s watch. Do you really believe anyone here is falling for your lies? It’s really easy to research. The NRA still pushed for the FOPA even after Hughes was added and they supported Bush’s temporary import ban which later was expanded and made permanent. “The aptly titled drug “czar” William Bennett–on his first day in office–convinced the Treasury Department to outlaw the import of several models of so-called “assault weapons.” The NRA, attempting to preserve a relationship with the White House, praised the “temporary”… Read more »
Jesus Christ i’m glad that I got out of that pack of corruption. You couldn’t pay me to be a member anymore. I got out on that last election when all one had to do was to look at the attendance and who the attendees were to see where that was going. That group is as crooked as the White House administration is today. My My, all one has to do is follow the money.
As a life member in GOA, SAF, and NRA, donations have for years gone to GOA/SAF only….zero to NRA. LePewpew has long ago become a detriment to the NRA traditional mission. NRA needs to collapse, and rise again under new leadership with the heads of current leadership hanging on the walls in the New NRA lobby as a reminder to new leadership.
The problem with the lack of funding to “Real 2A” groups is there are far too many uninformed, misinformed and belligerent sycophantic members still financing the NRA. The money is not going to stop flowing and just disappear along with the NRA once it finally falls. People want to support 2A rights regardless of the NRA. They just believe the lie that the NRA is pro-2A and/or are not willing to admit they made a mistake in supporting it. The NRA needs to go away before real change is going to happen at a larger scale. The sooner, the better.
The NRA management is a bunch of sissified little wimps who jump at their own shadow!! They don’t do a damn thing to preserve our 2Am Right! Not even just one of them will actually address the heart of the problem, which is that the legal system is one huge cesspool, a den of thieves and vipers, and because it commits crimes on a daily basis, it has ZERO power or authority over any man or woman! I can mop the floor with ANY fake attorney, judge or LIEyer any day of the week, because I can see right through… Read more »
If the NRA is a sinking ship beyond saving, what will become of the National Firearms Collection ? With rumors of a leaking roof at headquarters and missing items, the collection needs to be audited. If the politicians in New York gain access and control of it I fear they will have it destroyed. Ideally it belongs to the American people as a whole. Some of our pro-gun representatives need to start a push for a new museum to house the collection. I do not believe that the Smithsonian Institute can be trusted with it since they like everything else… Read more »
After reading the comments it seems to me it’s time for the membership to organize a class action suit kicking out the bums and getting back our dollars because of misrepresentation by the board.
I’m a long-time life member. When they call me for money I ask them, “What, does Wayne La Pierre need a new Mercedes Benz?” and hang up. Come to think of it, it’s been a while.
What an underhanded dog at people… “internet warriors”… hahaha well, they wouldn’t have to jump ship if the NRA wasn’t dirty, and I could be wrong, but it almost seems as though this article is on the same side of the fence as these so called internet warriors???? Am I wrong here? Did I miss something? Or is Mr. Know just pissing down everyone’s back?
Jeff Hit the nail on the head. The 2nd most disheartening thing about this tragedy is the NRA/2A members/supporters, their preference for the 2nd Amendment’s death than to fight for its survival. To not storm the castle and rescue the Association and its members’ investment, but to allow it to burn to the ground come what may. What will come is political defeat in the foreseeable future. Commenters should be careful what they wish for.
Knox made some good points but i smell more of another self serving bump for his own organization. Erich Pratt does similar for his GOA pointing out what the NRA supported long before WLP came on board and changed their focus.
Thanks again for trying Jeff. I’ve been calling for LaPierre’s oust since the nineties. Guess it just isn’t going to happen until the Feds haul him out in cuffs. Too many people seem to be reveling in this “let’s kill the NRA” movement. Thanks, people, for aiding and abetting the liberal gun grabbers. I despise the people who were elected to the board and betrayed the members. I really don’t get the people who want to drag out the NRA support for the GCA. Being butthurt over something that happend 85 years ago is idiotic. I will never despise the… Read more »
So you support a gun control organization. Could have just said that.
Perhaps you need to go online to the Gun Owners of America the Second Amendment foundation in the Firearms policy coalitions pages and look under the long list of legal battles that they are engaged in and what they are truly doing to defend and protect the Second Amendment for this country and its members as well as those that are non-members. Then compare that to the list of what the NRA is done over the last three decades.
I just can’t see any benefit coming from throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The NRA is just to big for us to lose. There has to be someone nationally recognized and respected that can rally the membership and stage a regeneration.
I believe Ollie North tried. When dealing with the Mafia, it’s best to watch your back.
I hope that you are right. But more likely NRA is a lost cause!
There is. The GOA, FPC, and SAF.
if the NRA can do this to its members. what evidence is there to support, that all of these so called pro gun, and 2nd Amendment organisations are not doing or going to do the same things as the NRA to their member and supporters.
Others groups have pursued the goal of protecting and restoring the 2ndA actively, aggressively in the courts not looking for compromises. As an ex-NRA member, I seem to remember too many times that a compromise was hoped for and excuses were made for inaction. Court proceedings were avoided because of the fear of legal losses, and legal losses were always predicted as making things worse. Seems that there was a mentality that we must compromise and accept some gun control measures or else we will lose our 2ndA Rights altogether. It should be obvious other groups are not seeking compromise.… Read more »
Look at the works being done. A bad tree can’t bear good fruit.
If you could point to just one instance of the GOA, FPC, or SAF supporting infringement then you would have a point.
and if you could cite a single instance of your buddies Schumer, Pelosie, or Biden sounding off against any other 2A group other than the NRA you too might have a point. butt… you cant.
even today, our common enemies only fear (and respect) the one organization standing in their way of complete control.
You mean they don’t want to bring attention to the groups actually supporting the 2A and instead keep playing political theater with the “opposition”?
As I already stated above, Read more: https://www.ammoland.com/2023/06/nras-impressive-record-of-defeat/#ixzz874k7NHgF Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Follow us: @Ammoland on Twitter | Ammoland on Facebook Perhaps you need to go online to the Gun Owners of America the Second Amendment foundation in the Firearms policy coalitions pages and look under the long list of legal battles that they are engaged in and what they are truly doing to defend and protect the Second Amendment for this country and its members as well as those that are non-members. Then compare that to the list of what the NRA is done over the last three… Read more »