Oliver North NRA
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

As part of the continuing swirl of mismanagement, controversy and recriminations swirling around the National Rifle Association, the NRA sued its former president, Oliver North, accusing him, among other things, of engineering a coup attempt in an effort to bring down NRA EVP and CEO Wayne LaPierre.

Yesterday, attorneys for North filed a response to the suit in which they claim that all of North’s attempts to investigate allegations of excessive and questionable spending by LaPierre and the organization were blocked.

LaPierre—demonstrating his total dictatorial control over the NRA, its Audit Committee, its Executive Committee, its Nominating Committee, and its Board of Directors— stopped all of North’s inquiries and prevented others at the NRA from looking into the [financial misconduct] concerns that North raised. This included a retaliatory campaign against North, waged by LaPierre and [NRA counsel William A.] Brewer, in an effort to stop North from responsibly addressing the allegations against LaPierre and the multi-million dollar monthly payments to Brewer.

– Court filing in National rifle Association v. Oliver North

Here is the Associated Press’s report on the North filing:

Oliver North, the retired Marine who was pushed out as president of the National Rifle Association in a dispute within the gun-rights group, said in court documents filed Thursday that he was thwarted when he tried to raise alarm bells about alleged misspending and denied that he tried to oust the organization’s longtime top executive.

The documents detail concerns North said he raised over several months and the efforts he said he took to try to have NRA spending audited and reviewed by an outside, independent entity. He said the red flags began to emerge this past spring when he heard that NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre had received tens of thousands of dollars in clothing, private jet travel and other perks from the group’s longtime marketing firm, Ackerman McQueen; he also has questioned money being paid to the law firm that has represented NRA in its fight against that firm.

North said in the filings that each time he raised concerns about potential financial misconduct, his efforts were “thwarted” by LaPierre and the NRA’s lead counsel, William A. Brewer III.

“LaPierre — demonstrating his total dictatorial control over the NRA … stopped all of North’s inquiries and prevented others at the NRA from looking into the concerns that North raised,” he said in the court documents. “This included a retaliatory campaign against North, waged by LaPierre and Brewer, in an effort to stop North from responsibly addressing the allegations against LaPierre and the multimillion-dollar monthly payments to Brewer.”

The documents were submitted as part of a lawsuit the NRA filed against North last month in New York state Supreme Court objecting to his request to be reimbursed for legal fees. North has received subpoenas related to the NRA lawsuits against Ackerman McQueen as well as a U.S. Senate investigation into NRA operations.

“The NRA views this as a misguided attempt to deflect from reality; Col. North played a central role in an extortion scheme that caused the issues for which he now seeks indemnification,” Brewer said in a statement. “The NRA will not look the other way when it appears that crimes against the (NRA) have been committed by people motivated by their own self-interests.”

The NRA has been embroiled in legal battles and internal disputes on several fronts over the past year. Besides North’s departure as president, the NRA’s top lobbyist, Chris Cox, recently resigned after he had been placed on leave for what LaPierre claimed was his role in seeking to oust him. Just weeks before the NRA’s annual meeting this past May, the NRA filed a lawsuit against Ackerman McQueen, the Oklahoma-based public relations firm that has earned tens of millions of dollars shaping the gun lobby’s talking points.

The NRA has accused Ackerman McQueen of refusing to hand over financial records to account for its billings. That has taken on greater importance as the attorney general in New York, where the NRA is chartered, has launched an investigation into the NRA’s operations, a probe that threatens its status as a non-profit.

Part of the turmoil revolves around Ackerman McQueen’s billings, with some NRA members and board directors questioning whether they were getting any value for the money. In 2017 alone, the NRA paid the firm $40 million. North has a contract with Ackerman McQueen for a show called “American Heroes” to air on NRATV, the NRA’s online TV station that was created and operated by Ackerman McQueen.

In recent weeks, the NRA shuttered NRATV, deciding to air only previously recorded episodes while it examines whether to keep it in operation. North said in the court filings that the NRA’s lawsuit and its unwillingness to pay Ackerman McQueen means he’s not receiving promised payments for the show, which he left Fox News to join.

The NRA lawsuit against Ackerman McQueen claims North’s contract and work for NRATV posed a conflict of interest. But the documents filed by North claim LaPierre not only knew about the deal but encouraged it.

North also claims that a crisis management committee created to look into NRA operations was shut down by LaPierre and Brewer. He also expressed outrage at what the NRA has been spending on legal fees, claiming it has shelled out nearly $20 million from March 2018 until this past February.

In a statement issued through the Brewer law firm, North’s successor, Carolyn Meadows, denied that North was blocked from serving a second term as president. Rather, she said, he stepped away after he tried to “extort” LaPierre and she was a witness to the “ultimatum” he delivered.

She also called the crisis management committee a contrived controversy that came only as North’s contract with Ackerman McQueen was being scrutinized.

“The two had millions of dollars at stake when they embarked upon this campaign,” Meadows said.

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67 COMMENTS

    • Everything the AP releases IS editorial. They have a leftist slant and bias in all of their stories., even those about utterly non-political events. They are also habitual liars.

  2. Down comes the NRA, the first block to fall in your conservative world. Soon Bernie will have ya’ll begging for his help. You are a disjointed group, that always tears down its “leaders”, because unlike our collective mind, you are unruly and overly opinionated. Coupled with your extremely high level of individual arrogance makes you easy prey to divide and conquer.

    Bernie in 2020

    • LOL – The strength and bonding of Americas gun owners does not come from the NRA, it comes from the American gun owners resolve to deal with tyranny when needed. Nice try though. 101 level trolling.

      • The LOL is on YOU!

        “American gun owners (biggest cowards ever) resolve to deal with tyranny when needed.”

        Nice try though, taking credit for some white dudes over 240 years ago. *085 level trolling* at best, maybe, and a D- at that!

        The true revolution is democratic and Bernie 2020!

    • No, you can’t have my stuff.

      (My standard answer to Bernie supporters.)

      • They don’t want your stuff.
        The government already gets your stuff.
        You don’t even own your house. Stop paying taxes and find out what happens.

        What they DO want to do is re-allocate how the stuff they get is spent.
        For example, less money spent bombing brown people and more money spent educating our population.

        It’s kind of compelling until you get to the whole “we want to control almost every aspect of your life” part.

    • You’re making a pretty wild assumption that Bernie will still be alive in 2020. At his age he could stroke out and die any minute.

    • a vote for commie Bernie is a vote for eating your own dog or cat…because sooner or later with how they run governments….that will be your last dinner with meat…unless you eat the kids?

      See Venezuela…not too many dogs left there!

      • Not a possum joke. I have ate dog and it wasn’t all that bad , it may have been the cooks expertise.

      • Bernie – “Government run food lines for dog and cat meat aren’t bad because at least they’re feeding the people!”

    • As much as bernie bros like free healthcare and college I like food that I can buy. Communists have a really bad habit of making food unavailable for purchase.

      • The “Bernie Bro” myth was created by the Clinton campaign to make it appear that only guys supported Bernie. They tried their best to hide the fact that many women couldn’t stomach Hillary.

    • Bernie? LMAO. Bernie’s broken ideas are older than he is. Let’s not repeat the mistakes made by dozens of socialist/communist nations.

      P.S. Sorry guys for feeding the troll….

    • Yes indeed, we are disjointed. It’s between controlled opposition to gun rights, people who want to hook their personal baggage such as US right politics to the right to keep and bear arms and RKBA absolutists. It’ll be a good day when the gun culture finally tears itself apart, and those of us with spines stop letting the tools handle our political capitol.

  3. At this point I don’t take anything from these folks – NRA or AckMac – at face value. It’s all a snake pit, and the head needs to come off the whole mess.

    Getting rid of Chris Cox was kind of a final straw for me; regardless of what you think about CC, his removal indicates WLP is thinking more about himself than the organization. Or has come to believe that he *is* the organization.

    • I agree. All of the material coming out demonstrates to me that Wayne is purging anyone who disagrees with his absolute control of the organization, rendering his attacks on North (who has his own credibility issues) weak tea.

  4. Ah yes, the ever trustworthy Ollie North. Surprised he had time to do this in between selling arms to our enemies.

    • Don’t forget Ollie’s expertise at laundering money. That’s what he went to the federal penitentiary for. Come to think of it… that’s probably also been his function at Ack-Mac and NRA. The funneling money through a shell corporation (A-M?) and then back again by expense accounts, is the same thing he did in the ’80s in the Iran-Contra affair that ended up with him going to prison.

    • The U.S. government constantly arms their “enemies.” Mujahideen, Taliban, ISIS, etc. Even Trump is following the same tactics. America doesn’t just arm terrorists they train them too.

      Special Operations teams train and arm people that end up murdering Americans. The FBI likes to radicalize terrorists and get them to attempt attacks. The CIA uses terrorists to produce their drugs to fund secret operations that congress won’t allow.

      Military guys just follow orders and serve their rulers with pride. The orders can be from CIA, FBI, DEA, etc.

      • All the better to keep the sheeple afraid and pliable. What better way to justify your own existence? Just look at this entire world full of terrorists (that we trained and equipped, but we’ll just leave that little bit out of the story) that want to kill you. You REALLY need us to protect you…. from the threat we created exactly for that purpose. Just leave that bit out.
        After all, the best lie is 99% truth….

  6. So all of North’s plans went south. Never ending power play, just remember if you plan to stay, those who give can take away

    • “The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.”
      ― Napoleon Bonaparte

      • That would be Wilbur Ross and his masters, the RothChilds. Along with Elaine Chou and her billionaire family in China.

        Manipulation on a grand scale, look monkey, shiny pebble! They’ll ban the Bible, they will make you marry a gay person, wet backs will steal your jobs, no Irish need apply!

        • The RothChilds have owned Donald Trump for decades. Wilbur Ross is just his handler, the strings are pulled by the Rothschilds.

          But enough about all that, aren’t you concerned about gay weddings? And all that nasty gay sex they’re having? And don’t forget all those brown people streaming across the border to take your low-paying job at McDonald’s.

          “In the late 1970s, Ross began his 24-year employment with the New York City office of N M Rothschild & Sons (now Rothschild & Co), where he ran the bankruptcy-restructuring advisory practice.[13][17]

          In the 1980s, Donald Trump was in financial trouble. His three casinos in Atlantic City were under foreclosure threat from lenders. Ross, who was then the senior managing director of Rothschild Inc., represented investors in the casino. Along with Carl Icahn, Ross convinced bondholders to strike a deal with Trump that allowed Trump to keep control of the casinos.”

        • And there is the root of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Even though the banksters have owned him for years, he still cannot be in a position of authority. He can be a CEO (their employee), but he must not be an official. It’s a fundamentalist religion thing with them. They worship the rules of whatever secret society they’re in, and ONLY those who have taken the secret oaths are allowed to be an “official”, which is their priesthood.
          This is why they will do anything to oust him. He obeys all of their orders, but for these ones, it just isn’t enough. It is against their Dogma for him to even be a priest, let alone the top one. While he stays in the high priest’s office, it is a heresy and he must be brought down, BAMN.
          So these deluded, but powerful, fools believe…

      • Interesting, isn’t it, that Napoleon was talking about the Rothchild bank in Paris, and its still the same today. Napoleons come and go, but the banksters always stay. Nothing changes. At least…. not so far…. I have high hopes for this time around the same old eight turn track though. I think this time we might be able to find pit road and get off.
        http://www.corson.org/archives/sociological/S27_090109.htm

  7. Who will the anti-people Alinsky on gun rights w/o the NRA to snipe at? And with an election coming up.

  9. “The NRA will not look the other way when it appears that crimes against the (NRA) have been committed by people motivated by their own self-interests.”

    So wanting to bring in an independent auditor is somehow nefarious?

      • NRA members are amazing at looking the other way. They make excuses like battered domestic partners. It’s quite sad.

        • Not all of us. Life member here but not another dime until they start paying attention to what’s going on here in California. Thanks Wayne for all the help. /sarc off

        • Pfft, are you serious Bob? Not even quitting, already paid them for a life membership and you think donating nothing more makes you different? Weak.

          Every one of you with at least some delusion of concern for the RKBA is amazing at looking the other way. I have more respect for the NRA fudds who know they’re fudds. Refer yourself down to my reply to former water walker.

  10. Bad actor’s all around. As of NOW I’m not renewing my NRA membership. Fix your s””tstain…

    • Good job, but people who are just leaving the NRA now, or not renewing whenever their thing is up (way to play hard ball), need to realize something. You’ve already sent a resounding, multi-decade message of being willing to put up with fudd politics and opaque business, and this is what lobbyists and politicians want you to do. Like anybody else they will be rationally optimistic; while it is possible that 5 million or whatever number of people are their tools, they will base their decisions on the assumption that 5 million people are their personal tools to do with as they will. It’s a safe bet, it’s like heads they win tails flip again.

      So, here is my point; it will take a long, long time to convince the NRA and GOP leadership that things have really changed, if in fact anything really has. NRA members attention spans being what they are, even if you’re all riled up no, how many will remember to be upset in a year?

  11. “New York, where the NRA is chartered, has launched an investigation into the NRA’s operations, a probe that threatens its status as a non-profit.”

    Any chance they could fold up shop in NY and move to Texas?

  13. End of the day, and this has been evident since they first started bothering to conceal their anti-gun agenda, a dense cloud of mystery, drama and fuddlore surrounds the NRA. To some of you that’s not a problem, you were just going to delude yourselves anyway and do the only thing you’re good for; follow the path of least resistance guided by mindless tribalism. Not needed but it helps. You can pretend to have principles, say ignorant crap like “you mustn’t know what happened in ’77”.

    So anyway, now go ahead and follow this soap opera crap and make believe that you can do jack about it, that any of the parties involved are something other than human garbage and the members something other than tools.

  14. Looks like two mob bosses fighting each other for control of the same extortion racket to me. Seems WLP is currently “winning”

    • I have suspected as much and he is hanging on, trying to guarantee that NRA funds will help in his defense.

  17. I was on the NRA Board of Directors for 9 years. Wayne has not changed in the past 20, he has just perfected his act. He is King because the Old Guard on the Board eats out of his hand and rolls over as ordered.
    They, the post-2000 directors are 100% responsible for this disaster. The NRA is doomed.

  19. Ollie North is a liar and a disgrace to the uniform. Is there anyone honest at the NRA? I’d like to know where my membership money got squandered.

  20. Frankly news of the upcoming Alaska Board meeting including cruise/fishing trip for attendees was all I needed to know to finalize my opinion. I’m not sure how to do it, but a full house cleaning is in order and my purse is closed until that occurs. I will support any reasonable effort.

    If the NRA goes under it looks like there are lots of financially responsible organizations vying for the niche. I always kind of realized that La Pierre was a swamp creature in every way, but now I am absolutely certain and I’m not funding his life style.

  21. The NRA needs to get its act together. Right now the Liberals are crowing about the demise of the NRA and the people who are on the inside did it to themselves and to us. We need them and their lobbying horsepower every single day on the Federal and state level. Get your act totterer! But by the same token, we all need to stand by it and not help the Liberal’s fight against our rights. Keep your memberships, but demand the NRA get it together.

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