The State of New York v. The National Rifle Association

January 9, 2024 5:24 PM

Four years after filing suit and a failed attempt at declaring bankruptcy, the civil fraud trial against the NRA and its head Wayne LaPierre by NYAG Leticia James has finally commenced.

From the first posting on the case:

The lawsuit asserts that NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre used the organization's funds as a personal piggy bank, billing personal travel to the NRA while refusing to disclose details for "security reasons". In addition, while ostensibly reducing consulting fees to longtime consultants, LaPierre used "oral contracts" to funnel even more money to them in violation of organizational rules.

posted by NoxAeternum (34 comments total)

Yup, and LaPierre severed his relationship with the organization just last week or so.

Honestly if he drained the organization into his own pockets and helped cripple it in the process, then it's an evil man doing a good work.

I don't understand what it is about US society that allows actual social poisons to exist for decades without serious challenge. But the sooner the NRA is removed, the sooner we have a collective chance to begin to make progress and heal.
posted by hippybear at 6:10 PM on January 9 [19 favorites]

I don't understand what it is about US society that allows actual social poisons to exist for decades without serious challenge.

Their ongoing utility to incumbent power.
posted by mhoye at 6:15 PM on January 9 [22 favorites]

If you were going to compile a list of truly evil institutions in America, the NRA probably makes the top 5. Easily.

Not in the least bit surprised that such a place was ran fraudulently.

(The NRA wasn’t always evil, but it has been for the last 40-50 years or so, though .)
posted by teece303 at 6:18 PM on January 9 [8 favorites]

Honestly if he drained the organization into his own pockets and helped cripple it in the process, then it's an evil man doing a good work.

LaPierre will be replaced with someone more abhorrent. And gun owners are the underlying problem that keeps the NRA machine going, as much as Russian cash infusions through the NRA to the Republicans. I'm glad he will see his day in court but nothing will change from this until we get gun ownership under control.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 6:18 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]

I still think the solution is to tax ammunition like they're cigarettes, all the way down to requiring a little tax stamp. Get caught without stamped ammo? Say hello to confiscation and large fines. Get caught with someone using unstamped ammo at your gun range, say hello to confiscation and large fines. Large fines, all the way down.
posted by aramaic at 6:23 PM on January 9 [34 favorites]

And gun owners are the underlying problem that keeps the NRA machine going

I mean, the good news is that the NRA is shedding membership and therefore income and therefore influence. The NRA Is at Rock Bottom—And 15 Years of Tax Filings Tell the Story [The Daily Beast, 21 Dec 2023]

It's possible you haven't kept up with how this organization has been declining for years before this and now is shedding members like dandruff flakes. But this is a dying regime, and LaPierre's departure hasn't meant anything good for the organization. What has had a reputation as a gigantic political influence machine is beginning to fade away into the sunset. Thank Jeebus.
posted by hippybear at 6:30 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand; it's very clear that this lawsuit is being engaged in not because of the specific fiscal wrongdoings of the nonprofit, but because of the content of the nonprofit. I am deeply familiar with the nonprofit scene in New York, and let me tell you, cushy overspending for nonprofit executive directors is..tragically common. I am not going to name them, their orgs do or did good work, but there are some liberal/lefty nonprofit org executive directors who also do a ton of the things referenced in the AP article, especially the five-star travel and expensive wardrobe purchases. The way they get around the reimbursement policy is that they have the org purchase the ticket, suite, vehicle, clothing, or pay for the flight, this way it's not a reimbursement.

On the other hand, they definitely did violate nonprofit policy, and "yes, but everyone else does too" does not a defense make because of prosecutorial discretion. I don't like prosecutorial discretion, but it's real.
posted by corb at 6:32 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]

Pretty sure it's been mentioned on the blue before, but for those who may have missed it, season two of the Gangster Capitalism podcast covers LaPierre and his shenanigans pretty well.
posted by calamari kid at 6:33 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]

Wih all due respect to corb, I do not have mixed feelings about this at all. By any means necessary, burn it all to the ground.
posted by gottabefunky at 6:49 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]

I am not going to name them, their orgs do or did good work, but there are some liberal/lefty nonprofit org executive directors who also do a ton of the things referenced in the AP article, especially the five-star travel and expensive wardrobe purchases.

I mean, name em, I don't see why not. Except for the off topic-ness, I suppose. We won't shriek in fright.

As for this news, fucking hooray! The NRA is so evil as to be cartoonish.

the good news is that the NRA is shedding membership and therefore income and therefore influence.

Amen! We can definitely celebrate this.
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:49 PM on January 9 [7 favorites]

Seemed like the beginning of the end was when all their Russian money laundering spigots dried up/closed off...
posted by chainlinkspiral at 6:50 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]

get your hands out of these dirty pockets, damn you to hell...I'm going this way to find J street with this new rifle and liberated human to further colonialism if only there where humans left that could talk...it's like telepathic monologue, what's that XX XX XX...more lobbyists
posted by clavdivs at 6:53 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]

As much as I want to celebrate this, I feel like the damage has been done, and the function that the NRA played —to sell Americans on racist paranoia, and then also peddle fantasies of righteous violence as the cure for that paranoia— is now just a built-in feature of every right wing organization.
posted by Jon_Evil at 7:26 PM on January 9 [16 favorites]

By any means necessary, burn it all to the ground

It may not matter at this point. Where Republicans are going, they won't need an NRA.
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:53 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

So the NRA has been flailing for years, which is great news, because obviously the gun lobby in this country has gotten commensurately weaker right along with the NRA!

corb has it right, and organizations like the GOA have been aggressively picking up the slack and then some.
posted by Ickster at 8:24 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]

kinda wish communists would take advantage of the dwindling membership to hijack the organization. like maybe that bob avakian cult or just any of the other ones that make impotent calls for the armed overthrow of the united states government could join en masse and fuxx0r the board elections, sort of like how the ecofascists nearly seized control of the sierra club back in the late 1900s

according to wikipedia turnout for nra board elections runs about 7 percent, and the wikipedia article casts extreme shade on the nra’s claim to have 5 million members. grand theft nra would be hard, but if the trial causes a massive membership drop it could be achievable.

i mean, like, the organization has changed pretty radically before — the transition from being a hunting safety group to being a gun ownership advocacy group was dizzy-making fast. perhaps it could change again, into an organization advocating for the distribution of arms to and training of well-organized workers’ militias.

come on tankies this is what you were born to do your time is now c’mon do it go go go
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 10:50 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]

like the nra does political education, right, and there’s no reason it couldn’t retool to do, uh, political education
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 11:04 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]

Between this and going after Trump, Leticia James is a superheroine in my book.
posted by milnak at 11:51 PM on January 9 [5 favorites]

On the one hand; it's very clear that this lawsuit is being engaged in not because of the specific fiscal wrongdoings of the nonprofit, but because of the content of the nonprofit.

I immediately pictured someone having to have pulled the same on-one-hand trick back when Al Capone was up for tax evasion. Won't someone think of the poor Mafioso?
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:14 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]

kinda wish communists would take advantage of the dwindling membership to hijack the organization

please don't change the acronym, we need it for the crossword.

(New Radical Army? Neo Red Anarchists? No, Real Anger? etc.)
posted by chavenet at 1:39 AM on January 10 [6 favorites]

immediately pictured someone having to have pulled the same on-one-hand trick back when Al Capone was up for tax evasion. Won't someone think of the poor Mafioso?

I have spent time working in a public defender’s office in the South; my views on the use of prosecutorial discretion to get a conviction of someone they were unable to convict on the main charge, or to accomplish the personal or political goals of the prosecutor, are necessarily colored by that fact. Suffice it to say that while it may align with Metafilter’s politics in certain Northern metro areas, it has very different and terrible outcomes for various areas with conservative white prosecutors and judges and a majority minority population.
posted by corb at 2:34 AM on January 10 [13 favorites]

I'm old enough to remember when the NRA was all about gun safety instead of more and more guns. Attacking it for fraud, while it may damage or even destroy the organization, just seems wrong even if they did indeed engage in fraud. But at the same time, I don't see the American lust for firearms changing anytime soon so perhaps this is the best that can be expected.

Neil Young asked, "How many more?" The answer hasn't changed, "Too many."
posted by tommasz at 4:28 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]

I can't remember if we discussed it on the Blue when it first came out, but the NPR podcast No Compromise has amazing coverage of the more extreme pro-gun groups that have been carefully orchestrated to appear to be a grassroots response to the corruption in the NRA but are actually just a few terrifying people spreading propaganda.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:16 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]

[redacted]
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 6:09 AM on January 10

Mod note: Comment and response removed for general attacks on others. Please be kind to each other.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 6:28 AM on January 10 [3 favorites]

But at the same time, I don't see the American lust for firearms changing anytime soon

I dunno. I think NRA propaganda had a lot to do with creating that lust for firearms, by frightening people about crime, communists, evil G-men, and invasions of illegal immigrants. Basically convincing a lot of people the apocalypse was imminent for the last forty years.

Sure there are others willing and able to pick up where they are leaving off, but they won't be so deeply rooted in the culture as the NRA itself was. Not so many connections to politicians OR to generations of rural Americans. I think this is a loss for their team.
posted by OnceUponATime at 7:25 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]

I can't help but see the NRA failing and maybe totally going bankrupt and closing, as a good thing.

Sure, maybe another group will pick up the slack, and yes the NRA did succeed in spreading its brand of paranoid racism, but I'll take the win if NY can get it.
posted by sotonohito at 9:21 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]

(The NRA wasn’t always evil, but it has been for the last 40-50 years or so, though .)

Yup. This Rolling Stone article from 2013 describes in great detail this period. LaPierre is evil, full stop.

And here's another one: Inside the Decade-Long Russian Campaign to Infiltrate the NRA and Help Elect Trump, from 2018.

And here's ... oh, just google "NRA Rolling Stone," you'll find a ton of stuff.
posted by Melismata at 10:18 AM on January 10 [3 favorites]

With LaPierre on his way out the door, the NRA takes the strategy of throwing Wayne under the bus in their opener.
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:19 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]

Suffice it to say that while it may align with Metafilter’s politics in certain Northern metro areas, it has very different and terrible outcomes for various areas with conservative white prosecutors and judges and a majority minority population.

The notion that marginalized groups can be equated with the NRA and the criminals who run it, that does not logically follow. On the surface, this seems like a decent point, but it is really built atop a false equivalence — and a terribly harmful one at that.

To be honest, it is offensive to describe the NRA or its leaders or members as victims of any kind. The NRA is not a victim, not of codified racism nor of anything connected to entirely unrelated racial abuses that our judicial system is responsible for.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:11 AM on January 10 [3 favorites]

A bit of background: Oliver North became president of the NRA in 2018. He had friction with LaPierre. North had concerns about financial improprieties at NRA and formed a committee to investigate them.

He was forced out of office by the NRA board in 2019. In 2019 Letitia James began the investigation which led to the case which is to commence now in 2024.
posted by Warren Terra at 3:48 AM on January 11 [2 favorites]

Wow, when Oliver North is skeptical about corruption, you're in BIG trouble.
posted by Melismata at 6:37 AM on January 11 [6 favorites]

Speaking of which, in porcine aviation news we have North testifying under oath.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:37 AM on January 24 [2 favorites]

Continuing on, we now have LaPierre testifying to his using the NRA as his personal piggy bank. A lot of this came out in the bankruptcy trial, but it's good to reinforce how much of a ghoulish grifter the man is.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:43 AM on January 26