NRA corruption trial to enter second phase

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

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

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

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

James also wants to bar LaPierre from serving in leadership positions at any New York charitable organization and to ban the NRA and general counsel John Frazer from collecting funds from any charitable organizations in the state.  

A third executive, ex-chief financial officer Woody Phillips, was found liable for violating the law and ordered to pay $2 million but settled with the attorney general’s office, allowing him to dodge the trial’s second phase. He was banned for 10 years from managing money for any New York nonprofit in a deal that was agreed to in May but made public on last week.

“New Yorkers deserve to know that when they support a not-for-profit, those donations are being used to advance its mission, not squandered on lavish perks for staff or cronies,” James said in a statement announcing the settlement.  

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

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

The NRA has struggled in recent years with shrinking membership and financial woes, including an attempt at bankruptcy in 2021. The gun rights group’s membership fell to 3.8 million by the end of 2023, some 1.35 million down from its 2018 peak.  

The organization’s attorneys pointed to its falling membership – and plummeting revenue from membership dues – as reason for its troubles, placing some blame on “negative press” associated with the litigation.  

“A big driver is this, you know, this weaponization of government against this organization,” NRA attorney Svetlana Eisenberg said of the group’s financial troubles, according to court filings. 

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

The longtime NRA leader, beginning in 1991, resigned from his position 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 publications arm, following an election.  

During the trial, state lawyers said LaPierre used the NRA’s 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 his home and purchase gifts for friends and family, the state said. 

LaPierre testified at trial that he did not realize his luxury perks counted as gifts but conceded he wrongly expensed private flights for his family and accepted vacations from NRA vendors without disclosing them.  

After the trial, the NRA said in a statement that it was “victimized” by its ex-leaders who “abused the trust placed in them by the Association.” The organization has maintained that it is committed to “good governance.” 

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

Still, the jury’s verdict marked a decisive win for James, who has made her name slaying 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 serving in leadership positions for any New York company for three years, and his sons were barred for two years. 

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

The Associated Press contributed.