Wayne LaPierre, former head of the NRA, in New York this Thursday. BRENDAN MCDERMID (Portal)
The National Rifle Association (NRA), once a very powerful gun lobby in the United States, is in crisis. A New York state jury concluded Friday that its former manager, Wayne LaPierre, mismanaged the group's finances and that that misconduct cost the organization $5.4 million. LaPierre resigned in January before being charged with civil corruption in a case brought by the New York attorney general.
The jury found it proven that LaPierre has already paid back just over $1 million to the NRA, and a judge will ultimately decide how much more he should pay the group. Another defendant, the NRA's former treasurer and former chief financial officer, also engaged in mismanagement that cost an additional $2 million.
By the end of the last decade, the NRA, thanks to its campaign funding, was effectively sending members of Congress in and out of Washington to oppose federal and state firearms regulation. LaPierre was the chief architect of this shadowy force, leading the organization for 32 years before being forced to resign on the eve of the trial in early January.
LaPierre, 74 years old, an NRA employee since 1977 and who had already overcome an attempt by the NRA leadership to remove him as executive director, transformed the association into a political force that put pressure on Washington and statehouses Expand gun rights. although mass shootings continued to occur across the country.
A direct result of so many massacres was the first bipartisan gun control legislation in a decade, passed in June 2022 at the initiative of the Democratic administration, which some found too timid in its goals. Such an agreement would have been impossible a decade earlier. But RNA's strength began to wane in the middle of the last decade, with revenue down 44% since 2016 and membership down nearly a third since 2018, according to court documents filed last year.
The case that brought LaPierre to trial was presented in 2020 by prosecutor Letitia James, the same person who accused Donald Trump of continued fraud in his businesses. James, a Democrat, accused the NRA of looking the other way while allowing its top executives to divert millions of dollars for lavish personal spending, turning the group into LaPierre's private preserve (so-called Wayne Country, according to the indictment). . which gave her expensive trips and luxury shopping in Beverly Hills.
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LaPierre's resignation, announced Jan. 5, marked the end of an era for one of the country's most influential lobbyists. “It is with pride in all we have accomplished that I announce my resignation from the NRA,” LaPierre said at the time. “I have been a registered member of this organization for most of my adult life and will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend Second Amendment freedom.” [que consagra el derecho a portar armas]. My passion for our cause is as deep as ever.”
When LaPierre announced his resignation, he cited health reasons, but in reality, Attorney General James had requested his removal from office. The case was also originally aimed at dismantling the NRA entirely, but that goal was scrapped last year. According to the jury, John Frazer, current secretary and general counsel of the NRA, did not cause financial harm to the organization.
Despite the group's remarkable decline, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on legal services to combat gun control measures across the country has not stopped. Among the group's major legal victories is a Supreme Court ruling last year that struck down New York state's gun regulations and led to a series of legal challenges to similar gun control measures in dozens of states. The NRA supported the lawsuit that overturned the New York law.
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