Four members of the NRA board of directors have asked for an independent investigation of the gun rights organization to help dispel the “haze of conjecture” they say is swirling around the association. The letter was provided to TTAG by someone within the NRA sphere who is familiar with the situation.
Four board members, Robert Brown, Sean Maloney, Tim Knight and Esther Schneider, sent the letter below to NRA President Carolyn Meadows, NRA Secretary John Frazier and the rest of the 76-member board.
July 22, 2019
President Carolyn Meadows
The National Rifle Association of America
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, VA 22030Secretary John Frazier
The National Rifle Association of America
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, VA 22030The National Rifle Association of America Board of Directors
The National Rifle Association of America
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, VA 22030Friends and Patriots of the NRA
RE: Independent investigations
Dear Folks,
Continued leaks, accusations, and counter accusations have left a haze of conjecture surrounding our Association. It is our duty as a duly elected Board of Directors to dispel this cloud, right the Association’s path and restore the trust of our members.
Because of our dedication and loyalty to the NRA, the Answer and Counterclaim filed on behalf of Oliver North, in the case of National Rifle Association v. Oliver North, compels us as Board Members – legally bound by our fiduciary duty of care – to act. To ensure that we are fully and accurately informed about the financial health of the Association, we must make the following requests.
First, that the NRA engage outside professionals to conduct an independent, internal investigation and confidential audit into the allegations of financial misconduct. Second, that the NRA conduct an outside, independent review of the millions of dollars in payments to Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors for legal fees. Third, pursuant to NRA Bylaw Article IV, Section 2, Board of Directors, Powers and Duties, that an Outside Independent Special Committee be formed, tasked with investigating and addressing the problems identified above, and required to report its findings and recommendations to the entire Board of Directors.
With this degree of scrutiny and transparency, the Board can fulfill our legal obligations, remove all doubt regarding our Association’s direction, and allow us to return to our mission of protecting our Second Amendment.
Yours for freedom,
/S/ Sean Maloney
/S/ Timothy Knight
/S/ Esther Schneider
The four want an independent look at allegations of financial misconduct by Wayne LaPierre and others, as well as an audit of the tens of millions of dollars paid to attorney William Brewer and his law firm.
This tracks with the request for a similar investigation that was made by former NRA president Oliver North and former First Vice President Richard Childress in a letter to the board on April, 18 2019 (read the full nine-page letter here).
The four board members also want an independent outside committee appointed to conduct the investigation, with all findings of the committee provided to board members “to ensure that we are fully and accurately informed about the financial health of the Association.”
As the Washington Free Beacon‘s Stephen Gutowski tweeted, NRA officers have responded to the request with the following statement.
NRA leadership has responded to the letter from the 4 board members. The defend payments made to the Brewer law firm and labeled the letter “a contrived controversy being recycled by those who supported Col. North…” pic.twitter.com/TkGEOEjbvx
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) July 23, 2019
Translation: don’t look for the NRA to appoint any independent investigator any time soon.
Still waiting for a smart lawyer to initiate a class action lawsuit on behalf of the membership ( or some subset like the life/voting members).
Good call JGL.
NRAs hidden war chest runs deep. The law sharks are circling hoping to get a profitable bite out of it before membership demands action. Wayne’s only real challenge is to score some big coin without going to jail. Looks like he might just bleed the NRA out over time. Not as exciting but just as effective.
Had a discussion with my father, who’s a lifetime member, about the NRA.
We’re both in agreement that something isn’t right and I pointed out greed and corruption.
I honestly believe that it’s just a job to most of the people in the NRA. Grab what you can while you can.
Salaries must be paid and I’m sure some of the senior board members have salaries I couldn’t imagine.
Eventually I can see the NRA imploding.
Gee wiz Joat. You’re a little late to the party. Maybe copy your comment and go back about three months and paste it there.
For those just joining us, the NRA squandered millions of member dollars, got a messy divorce from AckMac (lost custody of the kids (Dana and Chris), got in a bar fight with itself, went on a bad PR drinking binge, tried to flush itself down the toilet, and is now committing suicide.
And oddly, there is nothing sad about it. The NRA turned into a real bastard lately and everyone is happy to see it move out of the relevance apartment building and on to the street where it belongs.
Not the first time a long established organization was brought down by the hubris and arrogance of the executive.
I hope the NRA survives but not with Wayne LaPierre and his cronies in charge.
I’m holding my breath and now starting to turn a blueish purple. Help!
If Wayne and company continue to stick around couldn’t they be held personally liable in a lawsuit brought by the members instead of the NRA? Will it take a democrat AG to weed out the corruption? At this point, I would love to see Wayne lose his golden parachute.
I’m concerned that this is the dream , the gift, handed to the gun control crowd to dismantle the NRA.
The problem with cancer is that the treatment may kill the patient; If you don’t treat the cancer will almost certainly kill the patient.
If this doesn’t happen, NRA will die…
A FEW MONTHS AGO IT BECAME PUBLIC THAT WAYNE Lapierre WAS PURCHASING VERY EXPENSIVE SUITS AND THE NRA WAS PAYING FOR THEM. THIS NEEDS TO BE INVESTAGTED AND IF IS TRUE, IT NEEDS TO STOP. I DON’T LIKE PAYING MY DUES TO PUT EXPENSIVE SUITS ON HIS BACK.
AMEN to that. None of us members likes to put those expensive suits on ANY of those chosen to “rule” the NRA. Time for a thorough accounting and to get rid of the leeches
Four board members requested an investigation? ONLY FOUR??? After all that has been going on only four board members – this shows that others are playing along and nothing will change. The NRA manages the amount of firearms freedoms we have instead of fighting for the 2A.
Nobody needs a 20k suit to fulfill their duties……nobody.
The suits issue is small beer. It may be emotionally stimulating; but, it’s still the small beer.
What we really OUGHT to be focused on is the expensive relationship with AckMac plus the Brewer law firm bills. THESE are the sorts of places where the REAL money has been spent.
My impression is that the NRA has been turned into an engine to generate dues and contributions to fuel AckMac and favored vendors, lawyers, consultants who were all on the payroll to keep the engine running to these ends. A well-oiled machine committed to serving itself.
If some graft had to be tolerated to maintain a strong national defense of the 2A, I could live with this. Unfortunately, far too many of us PotG are critical of the NRA’s effectiveness in defending the 2A. The evidence shows in a measly 5% “market penetration”; just 5 million of 100 million gun owners are NRA members. If NRA were seen by the PotG to be effective, wouldn’t we see a 10% – 20% – 30% membership from the pool of gun-owners? Wouldn’t our voice on Capital Hill be heard loudly if NRA represented 10 million or 20 million voters?
At this juncture it no longer matters whether WLP’s $20,000 suits were a good-faith business decision to have our Association’s spokesman well-dressed for the TV cameras. Nor does it matter whether AckMac’s marketing programs were effective/or-not. Nor whether the lawyers and consultants were fairly compensated for useful services.
The crude facts of the matter are that the officers and directors have lost the faith of the members and would-be members. The charter is under attack by NY State. DC is investigating as well. The Association is imploding under threats for which the officers and directors are entirely responsible. NRA’s current difficulties are certainly NOT attributable to Bloomberg or other gun-controllers.
I want the NRA to survive and rise from its ashes. I do NOT think we can re-create a New Rifle Association; we couldn’t keep the OLD NRA on a short leash. Remember, it was MEMBERS of the NRA that voted for the directors. The demise of NRA occured on OUR WATCH. WE have to fix it.
Extremely well said.
Uh, those suits probably weren’t actually 20,000$ like he recorded on the expense report he sent to Ack Mack to send to NRA accountants –*that’s* the big beer.
Pretty much canary in the mineshaft for me.
That smarmy idea of self importance indicates the level of cronyism we should expect.
May be small beer gives you an idea of the brew in the rest of the keg.
the stench of corporate greedy lawyers is getting very strong emanating from the board-room. the fact that corporate lawyers have taken the reigns from the members is evident. the NON-SHOOTERS, the new york lawyer-mafia, and the plain old crooks is starting to out-weigh the real N.R.A. members. the POCKET-LINING TURN-COAT LAWYERS, NEED TO BE REMOVED,PROSECUTED AND JAILED. GO BACK TO THE OLD NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOATION. WITHOUT THE political bullshit.
“GO BACK TO THE OLD NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOATION. WITHOUT THE political bullshit”
You mean a bunch of clueless Fudds who endorse gun control? Today’s NRA *is* the “old” NRA. Are you referring to the brief period where Knox was raising hell and making real progress for gun rights, before LaPierre had Knox outsed for looking into his use of membership funds?
The political bs is exactly what we need the NRA to do, only more and better. The old NRA gave us most of the 2A infringements currently on books.
I’d say the odds are better than 50% that the LaPierre faction will keep stonewalling till the NRA collapses in bankruptcy and criminal charges. I say that because they would have resigned or changed course long ago if they were in their jobs primarily to preserve our rights. Since they have not, we must assume that they are strictly in it for the money and don’t care what happens to us ordinary gun owners. I suspect they also fear what will happen if new corporate officers gain access to the records showing where the money went.
It’s not looking good, friends. Not only should we keep up the pressure on the LaPierre faction to resign, we need to support people who can pick up the pieces and rebuild from scratch. Perhaps the guys at http://www.savethe2a.org/
On the positive side, I predict an outpouring of donations when the dust settles and the rebuilding begins. I’ve already started donating to http://www.savethe2a.org/
“I suspect they also fear what will happen if new corporate officers gain access to the records showing where the money went.”
I imagine a number of those ‘really’ incriminating documents have already, or soon will be, hmmmmmmm “lost”.
I wonder if that noise I hear is the paper shredding machines ??????????????
EVERYBODY who is on this site who is/was an NRA member, should go to the site Dr. Michael s. Brown references in his post. There are some people there who actually might be trying to work in the best interests of the 2nd amendment/NRA.
Even if you don’t feel like donating, at least read what information is on the site. I believe the people on ” save the 2nd ” are a glimmer of hope.
Yup, the Blagojevich Strategy, aka “last refuge of the impossibly guilty.” Every additional day that asshole governor continued to sit in his governor’s chair in the face of insurmountable criminal allegations was both a victory, and a chance he’d somehow survive the scandal. So he fought every day, never resigning, until they had to finally drag his ass out to take him to jail.
I also believe this only ends with half the board and most of the senior staff going to jail. When they started they may have really been supporters of the Second Amendment. But now it’s all been about as making as much money as they possibly can.
The NRA is run by morally degenerate people. And morality has almost nothing to do with sex.
Ya Think,if there’re are any directors not corrupt on the board it may be in their best interest,before folks end up in state or federal prison.
These four will be the next to go unfortunately.
Maloney & Knight have already been stripped of their committee responsibilities, and I think one of the other two have as well. After this stunt all four are almost assuredly powerless courtesy of Mrs. Meadows.
We can’t storm the Bastille & physically kick these asses’ asses out the front door, so the only alternative is to walk away. The NRA has fatally wounded itself & is refusing treatment. Let it die, and in the meantime find another body to carry on the fight. Or multiple bodies, so we don’t have all our eggs in one incompetent basket going forward.
Gun Rights Organization? The NRA? Ohhh K, whatever..
So, are the anti-people somewhere in the background, pushing some of this along? My magic Bloomie-ball says “likely.”
Am I the only one who thinks they deployed early? Energized the members, focused on the issues, got people looking at impact, with time for alternate organizing. You look to drop n dishearten the oppo with no time left to respond. There’s a reason an “October Surprise” is in October.
Wait, you think this is all some sort of leftist ‘ruse?’ Jesus some of you people are beyond hopeless.
“If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine…”
Bingo; I see a good 3-4 orgs splintering out when the NRA national office goes lights-out. GOA, SAF, and a handful of the larger regional powers or NRA affiliates. Provided they find a way to coordinate (I keep proposing a ‘league of gun rights groups’ type body to replace the NRA home office) you would have an extremely effective but also diffuse gun rights movement. The anti-gunners would be doomed, and probably faster than we ever imagined, once we shed the shackles of LaPierre’s corrupt incompetence (and/or controlled opposition)
Too bad we can’t have a 2013 NRA when they stood up to the dumbocrats. My NRA membership expires next year. My $ will go elsewhere…
Knowing what we know now about the corruption and anti-gun efforts of the NRA, I’m confident they didn’t stand up to jack shit. I think WLP and his toadies took stock of the political situation, saw that there was no way gun control was going to pass congress even if the NRA promoted it, and decided that it would be a good time to posture as RKBA absolutists when there was no risk for doing so, and everything in the world to gain from sufficiently scared gun owners desperate to throw money at ‘saviors.’
It’d certainly explain how they blew through all that money in only five years while accomplishing next to nothing.
Why are there 76 people on the Board of Directors? Exxon is worth bazillions and they only have 10.
That’s part of the problem. Many are celebrities (gun world or muggles) who take it as an honorarium instead of actually working as a guiding and managing committee, like a real BoD. Many miss a majority, or all, meetings. There should be a real, active BoD of a dozen or less, and then an Advisory board of celebs and people who want to contribute but don’t have business/management/financial skills.
Might not hurt. Some of those legal fees look like they could support an entire small law firm.
“Joatmon says:
July 23, 2019 at 09:07
Had a discussion with my father, who’s a lifetime member, about the NRA.
We’re both in agreement that something isn’t right and I pointed out greed and corruption.”
Ya think?????
Get ’em all the He’ll out and start over again. Although that probably wouldn’t do any good. I can just see proposed new officers “wringing” their hands, giggling and saying Oh boy , it’s my turn. —–HEY HONEY, YOU CAN ORDER THAT NEW CAR NOW!!
Why bother paying for an “independent” investigation when Nancy Pelosi will gladly form a special House committee to perform the same service for free?
BOHICA.
So how many dirctors are there ans how many have to sign on to force an investigation?
Re: typos – no, I’m not drunk – I’m clumsy…
Let’s see….four out of 76. Yep, that’ll do ‘er.
Needless to say, if we see this initiative going “under the rug, ” even the most unreconditionable Fuddites need to see it’s Game Over and time to move on…
There is no way on Earth that the Old Guard eill appoint an INDEPENDENT investigating committee. Estch out becsuse theu could appoint s committee of “followers” who take their orders, under the table, from Marion & Co.
What is everyone getting so worked up about? The NRA is doing fine. I mean, when was the last time any significant anti-gun legislation was actually passed? Sure, we gotta give the snowflakes a few wins now and again to make it look honest but the NRA is still padding the right pockets (including a few of their own) when it counts. That’s just how the good ol boys do it in the swamp. No need to fret. Just keep sending your money and they’ll take care of everything for you.
Good! We need the NRA in the fight against the Liberal Socialists who want to rape our Constitutional rights. What we don’t need is an NRA that has lost the confidence of its members and become a weapon for the Liberal media to use against us. I do not, and will never advocate canceling my NRA membership or anyone else’s because that only feeds into the Liberal’s divide and conquer strategy, but the NRA needs to clean house. Now!
You can almost hear all the records being shredded.
Any competent, above board organization would welcome such an audit. It would accomplish 2 things: 1- it would clear them of wrongdoing and get their reputation back, and 2- it would let them air any dirty laundry ahead of the government investigations and shut down any improper operations. If there’s bad stuff that you report, it’s generally ok legally. If you don’t report bad stuff/mistakes, the government has reasons for charging. If you tell the IRS that you underpaid them 2 years ago, you’ll pay fines and interest. If they find it first, they could charge you with felony tax evasion. The investigations are looking fiscal mismanagement and lack of oversight, and the audit would prove otherwise.
Since they’re not taking such simple and greatly helpful steps, it tells me they’re just trying to stall and cover up.
I hope I’m not the only next year at Nashville to carry a sign saying “fire Wayne LaPierre”. Or t-shirt that says replace and or fire the NRA board. And it’s president Carolyn Meadows.
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