Image by John Boch.

The public face of the National Rifle Association’s leadership, Wayne LaPierre, goes on trial Monday in Manhattan. New York’s hyper-political Attorney General Latitia James seeks to remove LaPierre and others, alleging that they violated state and federal laws with their “diversion” of funds for questionable purposes like travel, clothing and more.

From MSN:

Wayne LaPierre, the longtime CEO of the National Rifle Association, is facing the most serious threat to his leadership of the pro-gun lobbyist organization as a corruption case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James is set to get underway in Manhattan, according to a report.

James’ lawsuit seeks to remove LaPierre, 75, one of four defendants in the suit that alleges top officials at the organization violated state and federal laws and diverted millions of dollars in funds from the NRA for flights, travel, clothing and hotels, the New York Times reported. 

The trial is scheduled to start Jan. 8 in New York State Supreme Court and is expected to last about two months.

Jury selection began Tuesday. 

Last week, a New York state appeals court in a unanimous decision turned down the NRA‘s bid to end James’ probe, arguing that it was politically motivated and that James violated the organization’s First Amendment rights.

On one hand, James has waged her own jihad against the nation’s oldest civil rights organization since taking office. On the other hand, LaPierre has faced harsh criticism from members of the NRA about his lavish spending. For example, The Reload covered the NRA spending $1.2 million in luxury air travel in 2022.

Despite slashing core expenses in recent years to account for falling membership and rising legal fees, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has continued to shell out big bucks for luxury air travel.

According to a purchasing policy disclosure report obtained by The Reload, the NRA spent more than $1.2 million with private jet companies in 2022 alone. The report—which details more than $50 million in spending on vendors with which the organization does not have a contract—documents approximately $750,000 in spending to a company called Magellan Jets LLC and another $517,000 to Corporate America Aviation Inc.

The purchasing policy disclosure arrives at the same time as financial documents detailing the group’s continued freefall in membership numbers and year-end revenue. Those have both steadily declined year-over-year since 2018, down from nearly 5.5 million members to just 4.3 million. Revenue plummeted by more than $100 million over the same timeframe.

As a result, the group has been continuously cutting spending on education and training, competitive shooting, and other programs at the core of its mission. The NRA spent roughly $28 million less than what was budgeted for all areas other than legal costs and publications, yet it still operated at a loss of around $11 million in 2022—calling into question the decision to continue spending large sums on premium air travel.

The NRA has Dallas-based attorney William Brewer representing it. The gun group has spent millions in legal fees with Brewer’s law firm fighting Latitia James as well as other legal issues – not always with a lot of successes.

Stay tuned for what happens in this upcoming high-profile trial.

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53 COMMENTS

  1. I am 44 years old and a Life member of the NRA. As long as I can remember, LaPierre has been at the helm or very close to the top. He needs to go. He has long since worn out his welcome and has tarnished the reputation of the NRA. If I was to make my decision today as a non member as to whether I’d join or join as a life member, I would probably only do 1 year or nothing at all. We’re tired of paying for his lavish lifestyle. He is no better than politicians flying all over the world griping about climate change. He should have stepped down and out 5 years ago when the shit all hit the fan. Instead he decided to stay chained to the organization and drag it deep into the mud. The NRA needs some new, young blood if it wants to remain relevant. And the Millenials are not likely to become dues paying members. Membership is diving because boomers are dying off. Without a significant reboot, the NRA will fade into obscurity and LaPierre will be the man who caused it.

      • I canceled my membership just before COVID, if memory serves. Grew up as a youngster admiring the Boy Scouts, the YMCA, and the NRA as American institutions. God, Mom, baseball, apple pie, and all that…

        Then the infiltration began, and greed & perversion rotted them out from the inside. They’re all dry husks of their former selves.

    • Wayne seems determined to live like other corporate execs…wants and needs of the membership are far down his list of priorities….

  2. For better or worse Wayne is no longer relevant to the defense of our freedom.
    I hope the NRA outlives him, but…
    Long the the 2nd Amendment Foundation, GOA & CRKBA
    and maybe the NAGRs.

    • B!tch will be the downfall of the NRC but what else would you expect from the Niece of RINO Mitt Romney… She’s doing the same thing Nationally that she did to Michigan and look what they’ve got now…

      • At least RINOs and neocons are getting called out more now. We will see how that translates to primary challenges but hopefully we can see either better candidates or more threatened politicians that are less willing to be democrats or globalists.

  4. NRA, negotiating our rights away for decades. GOA, and FPC have been responsible for many recent over turnings like the Brace ruling, Colorado mag ban, NY carry restrictions, CA and WA and NY assault assault rifle ban ann in just this last year! Give them your money, because they actually get results.

  5. WLP should have stepped down long ago. The NRA keeps begging, but refuse to give them a nickel. My money goes to the 2AF and GOA.

  6. At 66 year old now, I was a long time member of the NRA but grew annoyed at the constant badgering for money. I had to get, as I say, damned serious with them to knock that shit off.

    Then comes the well publicized accounts of the lavish spending where I and many other NRA members ended our affiliation and memberships with the NRA, in the process making it clear that not another red cent will come their way UNTIL the heads at the top are severed, specifically Wayne LaPierre. It pleases me to no end to see Wayne LaPierre brought down from his ivory tower and put through the wash, rinse and hung out to dry cycle.

    I sincerely hope Mr and Mrs LaPierre lose it all and serve prison time.

    I have always wondered why they could get rid of that weasel and what golden parachute was in place. Maybe that will all come out in the trial.

        • Nah, have him share it with ‘Bubba the Love Machine’, supposedly Wayne likes his side-piece handy and paid for. Wayne’s “defense” (such as it is) seems to be that he is “only doing what all other corporate CEOs do” (true), and he is no different than them (false; he is supposedly running a NON-PROFIT). The corporate CEOs are at least (arguably) answerable to their shareholders; WLP is answerable only to his own, hand-picked “Board”.

          I would love to see equal treatment for everyone, but . . . if we are running a biased, result-oriented “justice” system (which we clearly are), I can’t think of anyone, other than Senile Joe and his handlers, who I’d rather see get the ‘benefit’ of it.

          Hey, Wayne! Enjoy your time with Bubba the Love Machine.

  7. just send those self-addressed postage paid envelopes they keep sending….back to them empty..with
    WAYNE MUST GO! scrawled across the back….

  8. The sooner Mr Lapierre goes away, the better the chances of restoring the NRA to what it should it be doing. As it is, the NRA is increasingly irrelevant and invisible, so putting it back in the fight will be tough.
    Even if he’s found not guilty, the anchor he’s become needs to be cut loose.
    Go away, Wayne!

  9. I am an example of what the NRA wants to have. A new member since 2014. I had a great time at the convention here in Nashville. It was really exciting the guest speakers were amazing.

    But the NRA has become a “cash cow” for its board members. The millions of dollars spent on these things listed above, could have been gone to education children. Money spent through the 4H. And other programs specifically meant for children
    and some college students.

    They could have worked with schools who were willing to build a firearms training facility. One facility perhaps shared by multiple schools.

    It’s the NRAs job to teach the american people about the importance of their second amendment civil rights. It shouldn’t take the deaths of dozens of innocent citizens, and the destruction by burning to the ground of american cities. In order to show people how important it is, that they have the second amendment.

    Yes, AG James wants to destroy the NRA and shut it down completely. And the greedy immoral people who run the NRA, have given her the weapons in order to do that.

    When New York State began passing anti civil rights legislation years ago. The NRA should have moved out of the state. Just like these Gum companies have been moving to more friendly territory. But when you’re a immoral degenerate with this kind of mindset, you believe you are untouchable.

    If all these things are proven true in a court, then I hope they all go to prison.

  10. I am a NRA Life Member and with the small exception of Midway and Brownell’s NRA Roundup no other contributions have been made or will be made until new leadership and that depends on who the new leaders are.
    Not joining any other orgs. especially orgs. that offered brace group think protection via a membership…home girl didn”t play dat sht.

    • Let my membership lapse some 3 & a half year ago. Got a “verified” call the other day by a NRA goon. Get rid of old Wayne is all I said before hanging up.

  11. and the hard working members money will be spent defending this narcissitic crook instead of defending our second amendment.

  13. The NRA has been has been litte more than a bad joke for the last 2 decades. Just a bunch of political sell-outs padding their own pockets at the expense of thie members

  14. I am a life member of the nra who won’t give them another penny until Lapierre and company are cleaned out.

  15. How ironic, in that it may be a corruption trial that ousts ole Wayne from leadership, seeing is he refuses to step down willingly for the sake of the NRA. I get the plethora of NRA e-mails, and they go right to the “Junk” folder. I also get the snail mail from them, as well, which goes right into the shred bin. I have no problems with giving my money to GOA. I have more confidence that giving them my money is actually doing something good for the 2nd Amendment. It is sad to think that Wayne may end up sinking what was once a good, pro-gun organization. It is even more disheartening to think that Wayne would rather sink the entire organization if he cannot be the leader.

  16. Wayne La Pee Pee lost my support when he destroyed all vestiges of democracy in the NRA and made himself dictator for life. This was how he got away with wasting so much money on himself for African Hunts, European vacations for his family, $4,000 suits by the dozens and supposedly keeping an alleged young nubile mistress not to mention all the private Jet flights.

    I cannot blame people for dropping their memberships, but for me the American Rifleman Magazine was still good enough for me to keep subscribing to it. I still watch NRA TV as well as its still the best show on guns and gun collecting.

    I might mention that despite the NRA’s problems it still does influence a lot of our corrupt politicians. If the NRA goes under do not think that all the small fry pro gun organizations will be able to take the NRA’s place or ever have any of its powerful lobbying and influence. I think the Far Right always looks at everything from a viewpoint of a strict unbending black or white perspective with no varying shades of grey in between.

    • I mean, getting rid of Wayne will be nothing but good for the NRA, unless the next administration are also shameless thieving grifters.

    • dacian, the DUNDERHEAD, JBOL! You are not even a member of the NRA so why would you support anyone in the NRA let alone Wayne LaPierre?

      Have you ever found out the firing sequence of a cartridge yet?

      • To Walter the Beverly Hillbilly

        Have your wife explain my post to you. When you subscribe to the American Rifleman Magazine you are joining the NRA. Now what part of this do you not understand????

        • Hey, dacian the demented dipsh*t!!,

          Point the first: You are not, and never were, a member or supporter of the NRA. Your attempt to rewrite history on your OBVIOUS anti-gun, anti-2A lies might fly on the left-wing blogs I’m sure you usually inhabit, but . . . don’t be bringin’ that weak sh*t in here.

          Point the second: Where, EXACTLY, did Walter claim he was a member of the NRA, OR a subscriber to ‘American Rifleman’??? Oh, kinda skipped over that part, dincha???

          dacian, do us all a favor and go expire in an excavation.

        • DUNDERHEAD, I don’t need my wife to explain your dribble to me. You don’t have a “subscription” to the American Rifleman. You see you get ur choice of NRA magazines when you join as part of your membership, And we all know that you are not an NRA member.
          Nuff said? As usual, you lied claiming to have a “subscription” as there are no “subscriptions.” Nice try and thanks for playing. Tell me, honestly, are all of you hoplophobes as dumb as you?

          Have you figured out the firing sequence of a cartridge yet ?

  17. Once-upon-a-time, Wayne was probably the right man for the job. But that was a long time ago. Lt. Col. Allen West, (USA, Ret.) would have been/would be a great replacement IMHO.

    • Allen West??? Have you been following his political aspirations since he got booted from his one-term election more than a decade ago??? He’s hardly a good example of a winner, or one who can influence and change people…

      Educate yourself on him before responding.

  18. Signed up for multiple five-year membership offers over the years so I am good till the end of 2029. Haven’t sent them a dime in years and every time they call me begging money I tell them the money goes to GOA till they get rid of LaPierre.

  19. Yes, marxist “Latitia” and CNN hate the NRA and will do ANYTHING to destroy the NRA. One of their religious touchstones. Same as Trump, the Constitution, etc. They don’t care a whit about any of the secondary/tertiary gun rights organizations.

    Are you on the prog team?

  21. As the State of New York and Leticia are NOT members of the NRA, who could they possibly have any standing in Federal Court to even bring this law suit?

    • Investigating allegations of fraud against a non-profit is within the purview of a state’s Attorney General. This lawsuit was filed in state court, not federal.

      • There is little if any evidence of fraud. Leticia is just trying to depapitate the premiere gun owners’ lobby in America. She would be doing the people of the State of New York a service if she had The Clinton Foundation audited.

        Aside from that, they NRA is now a TEXAS corp. New York has NO jurisdiction.

  22. Reminder that in a 2017 Face the Nation interview Wayne LaPierre admitted he lied to the membership to get the Hughes Amendment passed because he wanted it. He deserves a blindfold and a volley of .30-30 as a traitor to the American republics.

  23. The 2A will be much better off after this Negotiating Rights Away organization is dead and buried. Good riddance!

  24. The National Rifle Association has been in support of workable, enforceable
    gun control legislation since its very inception in 1871.”

    — NRA Executive Vice President Franklin L. Orth
    NRA’s American Rifleman Magazine, March 1968, P. 22

    If you support the 2A and you think the NRA is an organization for your rights(but Wayne is somehow the problem?) then you are a moron. I really hope the NRA is disbanded after this. They are traitors to America for helping enact the Unconstitutional gun laws.

  25. he did what he was hired to do, undermine the gun owners and push gun control while laundering money for the Democrats.

    No surprise here… it’s a widely known open secret that the NRA has written and or advocated for every single unconstitutional law that’s passed since 1911’s NY Sullivan’s Act, National Firearms Act (“NFA”) (1934), Federal Firearms Act of 1938 (“FFA”), Gun Control Act of 1968 (“GCA”), Undetectable Firearms Act (1988), Gun-Free School Zones Act (1990), and more recently bump stock bans.

    https://www.secondamendmentdaily.com/2019/06/exposed-nras-top-lawyer-donates-to-big-democrats/

    Wayne

    Just got done reading this juicy thread on ARFCOM that evidences my longstanding suspicions (going on 20 years) that Whiny LaPee-yew of Negotiating Rights Away has maintained his Democrat Party connections from waaaaaay back in the day when he was a DNC operative BEFORE becoming NRA EVP. He may have even been laundering NRA member monies to some murky Demorat connections through his (and his wife’s) various SHELL CORPORATIONS.

    I wonder how much of this is known to the inner circle at NRA, considering that it didn’t take much for some nobodies in the gun community to dig up these PUBLIC documents:

    [https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/BREAKING-NRA-s-Wayne-LaPierre-running-a-shell-company-with-a-Clinton-CPA-and-much-more-/5-2238848/]

    And more information about the NRA, that has a long history of anti-2A advocacy.

    massive amounts of money going to a lawyer, William Brewer, who had been sanctioned for ethical violations, and given substantial aid and comfort to candidates like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

    in a new development, speculation is running rampant over on the AR15.com forum with documents about LaPierre “running a shell company with a Clinton CPA,” with some perceiving significance and others not so much.

    with LaPierre and with NRA under his stewardship – in terms of “compromises” and outright betrayals of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. While he’s not responsible for NRA-backed infringements before he took the helm, he has never spoken against or tried to correct them. He has gone on, post-Columbine, to denounce arming anyone in schools besides police/trained security. He was a prime mover in selling “Project Exile” to NRA members, even though more than violent criminals could be caught in its net including principled Second Amendment defenders who would become felons for refusing to obey edicts ordering them to surrender their arms (In 2002, NRA actually said that’s what “honest Americans” would do). While targeted to “[p]reviously convicted felons who possess guns and/or armed persons involved in drug or violent crimes,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office has explained: “When a police officer finds a gun while on duty, the officer can page an ATF agent, who is available 24 hours a day. ATF and the … police, in consultation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, review the circumstances and determine if a Federal statute applies and whether Federal prosecution would provide the most effective incapacitation for the offender.”

    It’s not hard to see how all kinds of incriminating scenarios could apply.

    Note that NRA had initially opposed many of the laws someone could now be hanged with, so it’s not hard to see how all kinds of incriminating scenarios could apply. And along with Cox, LaPierre gave green lights to federal bump stock “regulations” and “red flag” confiscations.

    The NRA has been unconstitutionally disarming We the People, long before the recent public outing by hoplophobic, anti- American Democrat National Party.

    They wrote and advocated for every unconstitutional law from the 1911 NY Sullivan’s Act, all the other state “license and registration edicts” to all the federal acts… while pretending to advocate for civil liberties and taking money from those trying to protect their rights

    Read the article, but be sure to read the comments. The people are finally waking up to the fact that the NRA has been the biggest reason why gun
    control has such a record of success… without the NRA the 1911 unconstitutional NY Sullivan’s Act wouldn’t have become law, none of the unconstitutional federal laws, ccw permits wouldn’t exist, bump stock bans wouldn’t exist, machine guns would still be
    available by mail order, etc……

    https://www.ammoland.com/2019/07/nra-board-member-joel-friedman-speaks-out-on-the-nras-record

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