In *totally* non-political move, anti-Trump NY Attorney General files lawsuit to dissolve NRA
Letitia James ran for office on a platform of ending Trump’s “illegitimate” presidency. The NRA lawsuit is a lashing out at the closest thing to Trump as James could get her hands on this close to the election.
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Letitia James was elected Attorney General of New York State on a platform of using the full power of her office to target “illegitimate” Donald Trump and those around him. She is the epitome of the politicized #Resistance prosecutor.
So it’s no real surprise that yesterday James teased a press conference for today with a “major national” announcement. Anti-Trump Twitter was abuzz that maybe this was it, she would indicte Trump and his companies.
No such luck. That would be too brazenly political even for James on the eve of the election. Instead, she settled for announcing she would seek to dissove the NRA.
We are seeking to dissolve the NRA for years of self-dealing and illegal conduct that violate New York’s charities laws and undermine its own mission.
The NRA diverted millions of dollars away from its charitable mission for personal use by senior leadership.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) August 6, 2020
The four defendants failed to fulfill their fiduciary duty to the NRA and used millions upon millions from NRA reserves for personal use, including:
➡️trips for them and their families to the Bahamas & safaris in Africa
➡️private jets
➡️expensive meals
➡️and other private travel— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) August 6, 2020
Here is the Complaint (pdf) and AG Press Announcement:
In the complaint, Attorney General James lays out dozens of examples where the four individual defendants failed to fulfill their fiduciary duty to the NRA and used millions upon millions from NRA reserves for personal use, including trips for them and their families to the Bahamas, private jets, expensive meals, and other private travel. In addition to shuttering the NRA’s doors, Attorney General James seeks to recoup millions in lost assets and to stop the four individual defendants from serving on the board of any not-for-profit charitable organization in the state of New York again.
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” said Attorney General James. “The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.”
There have been a lot of reports of infighting and excessive spending by NRA executives, so there likely is some truth to the excessive spending allegations. Whether that meets the statutory standard for dissolving the entity is a very different question which will not be answered in the courts for years.
The NRA has responded:
(1/3) NRA PRESIDENT RESPONDS TO NY AG:
This was a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend. You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as…
— NRA (@NRA) August 6, 2020
(3/3) Our members won’t be intimidated or bullied in their defense of political and constitutional freedom.
As evidenced by the lawsuit filed by the NRA today against the NY AG, we not only will not shrink from this fight – we will confront it and prevail.
— NRA (@NRA) August 6, 2020
But legalities aside, this is totally political. A lashing out at the closest thing to Trump as James could get her hands on this close to the election.
But it will backfire. It sends the signal, once again, that Democrats want to take your guns and remove any political opposition to get there. It undoubtedly will boost NRA membership and donations,and give Trump a talking point.
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Comments
This goon along with the mayor and governor need to be recalled. These are dangerous people
Was it political? Heck yes!
I’m an Endowment Life Member and a NRA Basic Pistol Instructor. I am on first name basis with a number of the current members of the Board of Directors and all of the “dissidents” forced out with the exception of Ollie North.
However, I am of the feeling that James may have done all of us who wanted reform in the NRA a big favor. While she went a bridge too far – and I doubt she will get her wish of dissolving the NRA – if she can force out LaPierre and his coterie of grifters, she will have done the organization a big favor.
As to the comments above about just voting out BOD members, it just isn’t that easy. The Board is too damn large at 76 members with only 1/3 elected annually. Furthermore, you have to be a Life Member or 5 year continuous annual member to be able to vote. In most years, the number of eligible voters actually voting is in the 5-7% range. Moreover, the bylaws have now been changed to make it incredibly hard to vote out Wayne and impossible given how he has stacked the board with his loyalists.
If I were looking into a crystal ball, here is the outcome I foresee. First, the legal wrangling will go on for months if not years. Wayne’s Rasputin Bill Brewer and his law firm will make even more money on top of the over $54 million or so they’ve already gotten. Second, I see the NRA not being dissolved but Wayne and John Frazer out, the NRA pays a hefty fine, and assets of Wayne, Josh Powell, Woody Phillips, and John Frazer attached.
Finally, all those gun prohibitionists attacking the NRA who they perceive as hardcore 2A are in for a big surprise. In the gun culture, the NRA is seen as moderate and too willing to compromise. The rest of us are not.
Amen.
The Board is kept ridiculously large as a classic case of “executive capture.” The Board’s influence is kept extremely diluted, and the executives can pretty much do as they please.
The number of people in the NRA who vote is small, and most of those vote the way the association magazine tells them to. Wayne controls the association magazine.
I was an NRA member of long standing, a volunteer certified instructor for pistol and rifle who has taught hundreds of students over several decades. I left the association last year and diverted all my support to GOA and my own non-NRA state org — not over executive shenanigans, but over NRA’s increasing willingness to surrender my rights for no apparent reason. I have left the organization, but I damn well have not left the battle, nor do I intend to.
It looks like Letitia’s idea of how to deal with a hornet’s nest is to swat it with a baseball bat.
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