A former executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, who was mayor of Lynn 50 years ago, Thursday took a wait-and-see viewpoint on a lawsuit led by the attorney general of New York that would dissolve the gun-right group.
J. Warren Cassidy, mayor in 1970-71, said he was disheartened to hear of the suit. He also noted that the NRA and the state of New York have had a historically rocky relationship.
Cassidy was the NRA’s executive VP from 1986 through 1991, and was succeeded by Wayne Lapierre, current CEO and executive vice president of the group.
Lapierre is central to the suit that was filed in Manhattan State Court. Attorney General Letitia James claims in the suit that top executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures.
The suit also highlighted misspending and self-dealing claims that have roiled the NRA and LaPierre, in recent years — from hair and makeup for his wife to a $17 million post-employment contract for himself.
“It’s disheartening for me to hear this,” he said. “New York and the NRA have been at odds for years.
“I don’t have any knowledge of whatever Wayne spent money on,” Cassidy said, adding, “but of course he’s going to be a target.
“If he did those things, the purchases, and the trips, and the lavish lifestyle, that is his responsibility,” Cassidy said. “However, the board of directors has the ultimate responsibility. They appointed him. They direct him. They can fire him.”
James said, “It’s clear that the NRA has been failing to carry out its stated mission for many, many years and instead has operated as a breeding ground for greed, abuse and brazen illegality,” she said at a news conference.
“Enough was enough. We needed to step in and dissolve this corporation,” after an 18-month probe, she said.
“No one is above the law, not even the NRA, one of the most powerful organizations in this country,” James said.
The lawsuit made only civil claims. James said the investigation was ongoing and any criminal activity discovered would be referred to prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service.
Simultaneously, the Washington, D.C., attorney general sued the NRA Foundation, a charitable arm of the organization designed to provide programs for firearm safety, marksmanship and hunting safety, accusing it of diverting funds to the NRA to help pay for lavish spending by its top executives.
In a statement, NRA President Carolyn Meadows labeled James a “political opportunist” who was pursuing a “rank vendetta” with an attack on its members’ Second Amendment rights.
“You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle,” said Meadows, who announced a countersuit by the NRA in federal court in Albany that could set the stage for a drawn-out legal battle lasting well past November’s election.
The troubles, which James said were long cloaked by loyal lieutenants and a pass-through payment arrangement with a vendor, became public as the NRA’s deficit piled up and it struggled to find its footing after a spate of mass shootings eroded support for its pro-gun agenda. The organization went from a nearly $28 million surplus in 2015 to a $36 million deficit in 2018.
James, a Democrat, argued that the organization’s prominence and cozy political relationships had lulled it into a sense of invincibility and enabled a culture where nonprofit rules were routinely flouted and state and federal laws were violated. Even the NRA’s own bylaws and employee handbook were ignored, she said.
Though it is headquartered in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a nonprofit in New York in 1871 and continues to be incorporated in the state.
The Washington, D.C., attorney general’s office has been investigating the NRA Foundation for more than a year. It said its investigation determined that low membership and lavish spending left the NRA with financial problems and so it exploited the foundation to remain afloat.
“Charitable organizations function as public trusts — and District law requires them to use their funds to benefit the public, not to support political campaigns, lobbying, or private interests,” Washington Attorney General Karl Racine said in a news release. “With this lawsuit, we aim to recover donated funds that the NRA Foundation wasted.”
The New York lawsuit also named LaPierre and three other current and former executives as defendants: corporate secretary and general counsel John Frazer, retired treasurer and chief financial officer Wilson Phillips, and LaPierre’s former chief of staff Joshua Powell. While the lawsuit accuses all four men of wrongdoing and seeks fines and remuneration, none of them have been charged with a crime.
LaPierre, who has been in charge of the NRA’s day-to-day operations since 1991, is accused of spending millions of dollars on private travel and personal security, accepting expensive gifts such as African safaris and use of a 107-foot yacht from vendors and setting himself up with a $17 million contract with the NRA, if he were to exit the organization, without board approval.
The lawsuit said LaPierre, 70, spent millions of the NRA’s dollars on travel consultants, including luxury black car services, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on private jet flights for himself and his family, including more than $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over a three-year span.
Some of the NRA’s excess spending was kept secret, the lawsuit said, under an arrangement with the organization’s former advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen.
The advertising firm would pick up the tab for various expenses for LaPierre and other NRA executives and then send a lump sum bill to the organization for “out-of-pocket expenses,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit comes at a time when the NRA is trying to remain relevant and a force in the 2020 presidential election as it seeks to help Trump secure a second term.
There has been an ongoing factional war within organization, pitting some of its most ardent gun-rights supporters and loyalists against one another.
The internal battles reached a fevered pitch at its 2019 annual meeting where its then-president, Oliver North, was denied a traditional second term amid a tussle with LaPierre as he sought to independently review the NRA’s expenses and operations. He accused LaPierre of exerting “dictatorial” control.
Chris Cox, the NRA’s longtime lobbyist and widely viewed as a likely successor to LaPierre, left after being accused of working behind the scenes with North to undermine LaPierre.
Material from the Associated Press was also used in this report.
