NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s attorney general sued the National Rifle Association on Thursday, seeking to put the gun advocacy organization out of business over claims top executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures.
Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, filed in Manhattan state court, highlighted misspending and self-dealing claims that have roiled the NRA and its longtime leader, Wayne LaPierre, in recent years — from hair and makeup for his wife to a $17 million post-employment contract for himself.
“It’s clear that the NRA has been failing to carry out its stated mission for many, many years and instead has operated as a breeding ground for greed, abuse and brazen illegality,” she said at a news conference. “Enough was enough. We needed to step in and dissolve this corporation.”
Simultaneously, Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine sued the NRA Foundation, a charitable arm of the organization designed to provide programs for firearm safety, marksmanship and hunting safety, accusing it of diverting funds to the NRA to help pay for lavish spending by its top executives.
In a statement, NRA President Carolyn Meadows labeled James a “political opportunist” who was pursuing a “rank vendetta” with an attack on its members’ Second Amendment rights.
“You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle,” said Meadows, who announced a countersuit by the NRA in federal court in Albany that could set the stage for a drawn-out legal battle lasting well past November’s election.
James and Racine are Democrats.
The lawsuit made only civil claims, but James said the investigation was ongoing and any criminal activity discovered would be referred to prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service.
The NRA’s financial troubles, James said, were long cloaked by loyal lieutenants but became public as deficits piled up. The organization went from a nearly $28 million surplus in 2015 to a $36 million deficit in 2018.
James argued the organization’s prominence and cozy political relationships enabled a culture where nonprofit rules were routinely flouted and state and federal laws were violated. Even the NRA’s own bylaws and employee handbook were ignored, she said.
Though it is headquartered in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a nonprofit in New York in 1871 and continues to be incorporated in the state.
The Washington, D.C., attorney general’s office has been investigating the NRA Foundation for more than a year. It said its investigation determined low membership and lavish spending left the NRA with financial problems and so it exploited the foundation to remain afloat.
“Charitable organizations function as public trusts — and District law requires them to use their funds to benefit the public, not to support political campaigns, lobbying, or private interests,” Washington Attorney General Karl Racine said in a news release.
His lawsuit sought not to have the NRA destroyed, but to have a court-appointed monitor supervise financial transactions and a trust created to recover money diverted from the foundation.
The New York lawsuit also named LaPierre and three other current and former executives as defendants: corporate secretary and general counsel John Frazer, retired treasurer and chief financial officer Wilson Phillips, and LaPierre’s former chief of staff Joshua Powell. While the lawsuit accuses all four men of wrongdoing and seeks fines and remuneration, none of them have been charged with a crime.