A New York judge has ruled that there will be no court-appointed overseer to monitor National Rifle Association, denying New York Attorney General Letitia James’ request for further oversight of the organization. Judge Joel Cohen also ruled that former NRA EVP & CEO Wayne LaPierre will be barred from working for the NRA in an official capacity for 10 years instead of the lifetime ban requested by James.

“The NRA is moving forward, full speed ahead,” NRA EVP & CEO Doug Hamlin said. “We have a mission to fulfill and elections to win up and down the ballot. This is a major step toward rebuilding the trust of the members, donors, industry and our staff.”

The bench trial that ended on July 29 marks the end of years of litigation and is also the culmination of the trial’s second phase. The first phase of the trial ended in February of this year when a jury ruled that the NRA was victimized by certain former vendors and “insiders” who abused the trust placed in them by the Association. The jury also found LaPierre violated his statutory obligation to discharge the duties of his position in good faith and with care. Former CFO Wilson “Woody” Phillips was also found guilty of violating his duties. LaPierre and Phillips were ordered to pay back $5.4 million and $2 million, respectively, to the NRA.

“As the NRA committed to the court, we will continue to pursue improvements to our commitment to good governance,” NRA President Bob Barr said. “We thank the board for its support and salute our loyal members. Freedom prevails again.”

This trial’s conclusion also makes it possible for the NRA to move forward with its course correction, which involves new compliance procedures overseen by Chief Compliance Officer Bob Mensinger. Newly elected EVP & CEO Doug Hamlin has reaffirmed his commitment to grow the organization and restore the trust of NRA members.

“As we move forward, my primary objective is to restore the trust of our members, our industry, our donors and our staff,” Hamlin said in an introductory email to NRA employees. “Once our members see we are making progress with the changes resulting from the efforts of our Board of Directors, they will come back in significant numbers.”

—Courtesy NRA-ILA

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38 COMMENTS

  1. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The NRA will never be reformed by insiders.

  2. The NRA may be catching a second chance at life, hopefully they won’t squander it.

    • Not at the moment, as in “the near future”. Down the road a bit, perhaps.

      As for reforms and changes, unless you are inside the organization you have no idea.

    • Didn’t earn it is typically at work in that office. Takes time and money but their incompetence is worth fighting.

      • “their incompetence is worth fighting“

        Incompetence? Well, Letitia James did recover over $7 million from the NRA’s corrupt leadership.

        And who could forget when Letitia James recovered money Donald Trump had stolen from veterans charities:

        “New York Attorney General Letitia James today released the following statement after Donald J. Trump was forced to pay more than $2 million in court-ordered damages to eight different charities for illegally misusing charitable funds at the Trump Foundation for political purposes:

        As part of a resolution of the lawsuit announced on November 7th, Trump was ordered to pay $2 million, or $250,000, a piece to eight different charities. Those charities are Army Emergency Relief, the Children’s Aid Society, Citymeals-on-Wheels, Give an Hour, Martha’s Table, the United Negro College Fund, the United Way of National Capital Area, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Additionally, Trump was forced to reimburse his namesake foundation $11,525 for sports paraphernalia and champagne purchased at a charity gala, which was added to $1,797,598.30 already in the foundation’s bank account. The combined $1,809,123.30 was split evenly and recently transferred to the eight agreed upon charities. Each charity ended up receiving a total of $476,140.41”

        I’m proud of Letitia James, forcing Trump to pay Army Emergency Relief almost $500,000 that Trump had stolen.

        • “Well, Letitia James did recover over $7 million from the NRA’s corrupt leadership.”
          No, it was from 2 hired, well-paid officers on staff, who in nearly every organization would have the trust of its board of directors.

          And really, Minor, what’s all this about Trump? He wasn’t involved in the Leticia James NRA witch hunt. Can’t stick to the facts, because the fact is- James would have done anything to shut down NRA. She campaigned on it, bragged about it, and now she lost. Had she been able to break NRA, FPC, GOA, NAGR, SAF, aND the rest would’ve folded within 3 months.

          I’ll admit there is a chilling similarity between the NRA suit and the one v DJT- shutting down or trying to financially ruin people/groups that you cannot beat fairly at either the ballot box or in the court of public opinion is a hallmark of the woke leftists. Seriously Minor- can you freaking imagine anyone with any semblance of the Constitution, the American Dream, or a person actually working for a living voting FOR Kamala Harris???

          The best the left can hope for is a number of people voting AGAINST DJT, with perhaps a few more assassination attempts thrown in compliments of a. Weaponization and corrupt DOJ, FBI and Secret Service, AND even then, all a taxpayer would have to do would be to compare their cost of living and lifestyle under Biden/Harris with the same under President Trump.

          • “what’s all this about Trump? He wasn’t involved in the Leticia James”

            Really, you don’t see the connection?
            Our friend SAFE suggested that Letitia James is incompetent, I merely pointed out a couple victories of hers showing her office is not all that incompetent.

            “the Leticia James NRA witch hunt“

            Only in this case, there were witches, Wayne LaPierre and his merry band of pranksters from whom Letitia James was able to recover over $7 million in NRA funds and force them to return the money to YOUR organization.

            Here’s the findings in a court of law, I take it you support Wayne LaPierre’s corruption and think that the jury was wrong in their findings:

            “The first phase of the trial, decided in February by a Manhattan jury, found LaPierre and another deputy liable for misspending millions of dollars on lavish trips and other personal expenses.
            He was ordered to pay back $4.4 million to the organization, while the NRA’s retired finance chief, Wilson “Woody” Phillips, was ordered to refund $2 million.

            The jury also found the NRA failed to properly manage its assets, misrepresented information in tax filings and violated whistleblower protections.“

            I would postulate that SAFE is just upset because the NRA members were incapable of stopping Wayne LaPierre’s corruption and it required a strong black woman’s skill and expertise to bring LaPierre to the bar of Justice and recover millions of dollars for the NRA treasury.

            I predict we’ll see more strong black women holding corrupt politicians and grifters to account before the bar of Justice in the near future.

        • Broken clock can be right twice a day and still be broken. Still didn’t earn it

  5. No oversight? Cool I guess but I’ll won’t rejoin anytime soon. No matter who uses a false # to try to fool me. Old Wayne & other’s needed real punishment🙄

  6. I’m right there with you. This charade went on for way too long, which suggests that the board was also complicit in this out of control spending and management. My contributions are now diverted to Gun Owners of America permanently, or until such time that it becomes necessary to funnel them elsewhere. WLP has left a permanent stain on the NRA, and it’s sycophant cronies.

    • Lightning rods serve a purpose and members or no they do have a lot of assets and willed estates to keep running. If they can be the punching bag while everyone else gets things moving to have them fund and take credit at the end (and often most expensive phase) so be it. Eventually they will run low on others money and have to compete for donations and members or rethink their priorities.

  7. Invasion, Terrorism, & Stolen Elections… They ALL Had No 2nd Amendment Until It Was TOO LATE… In this episode, we dive into the invasions, terrorism & stolen elections that have happened in the last 3 years. ALL of which could’ve been stopped in their tracks by an armed populace.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wStLxm4Evo0

  8. I remember the words of the UK PRIME MINISTER who was visiting SOUH AFRICA inv the Bad old Days of APARTHEID on an Official Trade negotiations and he was asked to address the South African Parliament I cannot remember the contents of his address but he issued a WARNING to the APARTHEID Government and the words have stuck with me. they were in effect ”No matter what the WINDS OF CHANGE are SWEEPING across AFRICA and you cannot stop them. The winds of change are also about to sweep across the UNITED STATES and the GUN OWNERS of the USA will not stop them either . It is a case of ADAPT or DIE accept reasonable controls and you all know what they are or more Draconian controls than are strictly nessessary WILL be forced upon you.
    And who will do the FORCING. The REPUBLICAN PARTY will do the forcing that’s who! Because they simply will not allow those that put them into power to roam the streets tooled up to the eyebrows because they will be the FIRST in the line to be disillusione3d when the TRUTH hits them. about that old NEW ORDER for THE AGES aka the 2025 AGENDA

    • Wow! You really butchered that ‘Albert’ (AKA Albert LJ Hall)

      The “Wind of Change” speech was an address made by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to the Parliament of South Africa on 3 February 1960 in Cape Town, 64 years ago. And he did not say anything like you posted.

      • And to add… Albert, your BS has been debunked here before.

        For example, now you claim to “remember the words of the UK PRIME MINISTER” … but in other posts of yours in the past (last year) you claimed to be 85 years old, claimed to have served in the British ‘cadet corp, army, navy, and air force – and further claimed to be expert with various firearms and to have been a firearms instructor during your ‘service’ in the British military and claimed to have been issued and used firearms during this service that were not even in British military issue since WWI.

        So lets do the math for your latest falsely stated missive here: The “Wind of Change” speech was 64 years ago, you claim to “remember the words of the UK PRIME MINISTER” that made the speech (and its sort of odd that you don’t mention him by name, but I digress…). If you were 85 years old, as you claimed last year where you indicated indirectly it was your ‘birthday’ then you would have been ~21 years old when the “Wind of Change” speech happened.

        But in previous comments of yours here:

        You indicated that you had served in the British military in a period of time for WWI (by your claim of being issued and training on a rifle that was only issued to the British military during WWI), WWI ended 106 years ago.

        So if you were 21 years old in 1960, and WWI ended in 1918, … 1960 – 1918 = 42 years …. 21 – 42 = -21 … or in other words WWI was over ~20 years before you were born so you could not have served in the British military as you claimed for training with a rifle that was only issued to the british military during WWI.

        You also in past comments claimed to have ‘retired’ from the british military in the 1980’s (after, you implied, 20 years of service). Using this information along with your other claims would have placed your ‘enlistment’ in the British military at age ~14 while you were supposedly, as a firearms instructor, training new recruits on a rifle that was not even in issue in the British military and had not been since WWI.

        So based upon you past comments, your comments here now, you are ~106 years old, served in the British cadet corp, army, navy, air force, was issued firearms not even in issue, enlisted in the British military before you were born to serve in WWI. But somehow you also enlisted in the British military after WWI at age ~14 and trained with firearms not even in issue in the British military. And then somehow you served in the British military in the cadet corp, army, navy, and air force all during the same period of service of 20 years.

        Yeah, I’m doubtful that you “remember the words of the UK PRIME MINISTER” for the ‘Wind” speech. In fact, I’m pretty sure everything you post is a lie or some delusional made up thing ‘twist’ that’s oddly similar in the structure to that which dacian and Miner49er post.

        • and to add… I left out the part …

          where, in your past posts you claimed to have also served in the british military ‘special forces’ AFTER your claimed ‘retirement’ from the British military with a rifle that was not issued to the british military ‘special forces’ until AFTER your claimed retirement from the british military.

          • You forgot about the period of time when him and Joe Biden had that trucking company that served the unobtanium mining industry somewhere near Area 51 back in the 2030s.

    • R3ddit is elsewhere no upvotes or gold for you. And if you actually are an example of the British military no wonder the empire collapsed.

  9. A tyrant dictator (Maduro) disarmed the Venezuela populace (via Biden/Harris type ‘gun control’ they wanted) then used his armed military and police to stop the voting process, kill innocent civilians, and then declared himself the winner of the election. The Biden-Harris admin helped him do it by fueling his power with sanctions relief & appeasement.

    But Kamala Harris accepts and equates this marx-ist socialist overthrow of Venezuela as, basically, a perfectly normal freedom democratic thing alluding to it being the ‘will of the people’ ‘who expressed their voice in today’s historic presidential election’ with her comments on X > https://x.com/VP/status/1817687288056303648

    “The United States stands with the people of Venezuela who expressed their voice in today’s historic presidential election. The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected. Despite the many challenges, we will continue to work toward a more democratic, prosperous, and secure future for the people of Venezuela.”

    Now ya know what she has in mind for the United States – a ‘perfectly normal freedom democratic’ thing of a disarmed and defenseless populace subject to the threat of oppression and violence and death at the hands of government in a marxi-st social-ist utopia of tyrant dictatorship.

    • Just Colt brand AR 15 and mag restrictions still in place. With that said it does open the door a crack to further development especially if the state appeals during the 30 day stay before they are available to the public.

  12. La Pierre and Phillips are having to fork over $7,400,000.
    That’s slightly less than $2 per NRA member.

  13. I have read on different gun blogs, this new chairman is a crony of Wayne LaPierre.
    NRA really needs an entirely new board before the public can trust them again.

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