NRA corruption trial to enter second phase

The second phase of the National Rifle Association (NRA) corruption trial in New York, where a judge will determine whether former leadership should face any non-monetary penalties for misspending the prominent gun rights organization’s money, is set to begin in Monday.

Earlier this year, a jury found that Wayne LaPierre, former head of the NRA, wasted millions of dollars of the organization’s money to finance his lavish lifestyle. He was ordered to pay the organization $4.35 million in damages.

Now, Judge Joel Cohen will decide whether any further relief against LaPierre, the NRA and another executive should be granted.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), who sued the NRA and its top leadership in 2020, asked the judge to install an independent monitor who would oversee the organization’s management of its charitable assets.

James also wants to ban LaPierre from holding leadership roles in any New York charitable organization and ban the NRA and General Counsel John Frazer from collecting funds from any charitable organization in the state.

A third executive, former chief financial officer Woody Phillips, was found responsible for violating the law and ordered to pay $2 million, but he reached a deal with the attorney general’s office that allowed him to avoid the second phase of the trial. . He was banned for 10 years from managing money for any New York nonprofit in a deal that was reached in May but made public last week.

“New Yorkers deserve to know that when they support a nonprofit organization, those donations are being used to advance its mission, not wasted on generous perks for employees or friends,” James said in a statement announcing the deal.

In court cases, the NRA warned that such penalties could endanger the future of the gun rights organization, describing the attorney general’s request as “expensive” and “redundant.” The group said trial witnesses, attuned to the organization’s inner workings, agreed that any “further state intrusion poses a serious and unnecessary threat” to its recovery.

“In addition to the direct costs of a monitor and staff, which would be borne by the NRA, imposing a monitor would deter donors and members at a time when the NRA is already facing financial challenges as a result of the NYAG lawsuit,” the attorney of the NRA, Noah Peters, wrote in July 1 court documents.

The NRA has struggled in recent years with dwindling membership and financial problems, including an attempted bankruptcy in 2021. The gun rights group’s membership has fallen to 3.8 million at the end of 2023, about 1 .35 million below the 2018 peak.

The organization’s lawyers pointed to falling membership numbers – and sharply falling revenues from member dues – as the reason for its problems, attributing some blame to the “negative press” associated with the litigation.

“A big driver is this, you know, this government weaponization of this organization,” NRA lawyer Svetlana Eisenberg said of the group’s financial problems, according to court records. 

LaPierre also pushed back against the penalties he could face due to the verdict against him, describing efforts to force his dissociation from the NRA as “unconstitutional and quite shocking.”

The NRA’s longtime leader, starting in 1991, resigned as executive vice president and CEO on the eve of the trial and was succeeded by Doug Hamlin, who previously served as executive director of the group’s publishing arm, following an election .

During the trial, state lawyers said LaPierre used NRA coffers as his personal piggy bank, spending more than $11 million on private jet flights and $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over three years. The group’s funds were also used to landscape their home and buy gifts for friends and family, the state said.

LaPierre testified at trial that he did not know his luxury perks counted as gifts, but admitted that he improperly spent on private flights for his family and accepted vacations from NRA vendors without disclosing them.

After the trial, the NRA said in a statement which was “victimized” by its former directors who “abused the trust placed in them by the Association”. The organization stated that it is committed to “good governance”.

The New York attorney general’s office initially attempted to disband the armed group entirely, but the judge ruled in 2022 that a “corporate death penalty” was not justified for the organization based on the allegations against it.

Still, the jury’s verdict marked a decisive victory for James, who made a name for herself by killing giants as the state’s top prosecutor.

A different New York judge earlier this year ordered former President Trump and top Trump Organization executives — including his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — to pay $464 million, plus interest, for conspiring to alter Trump’s net worth for tax and insurance benefits. . Trump was also banned from holding leadership positions at any New York company for three years, and his children were banned for two years.

The judge previously found Trump and the executives liable for fraud, after James sued them in 2022. James’s high-profile lawsuits have made her the target of conservative ire — including from Trump himself, who derided her as “incompetent,” “corrupt”. and “Hate Trump.”

The Associated Press contributed.  

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story