Opinion
Jury selection has begun for the trial between the NRA and the state of New York.
Not the one where the NRA is suing New York officials for encroaching on the Association’s First Amendment rights by using their regulatory authority to threaten and coerce banking, financial, and insurance companies to refrain from doing business with the NRA. That case has already been lost twice, once in the District Court and again in the Appeals Court, but it is on the docket to be heard once by the US Supreme Court in the near future.
It’s an important case, and the NRA is absolutely on the right side of that one, and deserves to win.
The case I’m talking about is New York Attorney General Letitia James’ suit against the NRA and four of its current and former executives for misuse of charitable funds, self-dealing, cronyism, and nepotism.
Unfortunately, the NRA is on the wrong side of this one.
AG James and her staff have compiled a very solid case detailing how NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, former Treasurer Woody Phillips, and former LaPierre deputy Josh Powell used their positions to pad their pockets and benefit their friends and relatives. NRA’s Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer is also named as a defendant, along with the NRA itself, for allowing and enabling the misuse of NRA members’ money. The trial in this case is scheduled to begin on Monday, January 8th, 2024, and things aren’t looking good for LaPierre & company. So far, the NRA has spent at least one hundred million NRA members’ dollars just on lawyers leading up to this trial.
In a cliffhanger twist worthy of a “B” movie, the NRA has scheduled a brief meeting of the Board of Directors for this Friday. No one except a few – two or three – insiders at the top of the NRA knows what to expect from that Board meeting, though speculation has been running rampant. Most of the speculation leans toward the possibility that the Board will be asked to authorize another attempt at bankruptcy. LaPierre already tried that once back in January of 2021, only to have the petition tossed out of court for having been filed in bad faith – this after spending tens of millions of dollars on the attempt and exposing all sorts of operational and financial information to public scrutiny. The Texas bankruptcy judge determined the Association was not in financial jeopardy but was using the bankruptcy to avoid trial in the NY lawsuit. A new bankruptcy filing would also attempt to delay or avoid the New York trial.
Still, now the Association is in real financial trouble worthy of bankruptcy protection – largely due to their astronomical legal bills and refusal to clean their own house.
Other possibilities for the Friday Board meeting range from just being a meeting to warn Board members to avoid talking about the case to a resignation announcement from LaPierre to a request to approve some settlement deal. Or it may be none of those and turn out to be some unexpected legal maneuver from the NRA’s expensive legal team. Of course, all of this is just speculation. No one will know for sure until after the meeting – possibly not until long after, as it will almost certainly be held in Executive Session with all attendees sworn to secrecy. If it is a move to file for bankruptcy protections, that should become public within a few days unless they decide to wait until the middle of the trial.
Meanwhile, in Manhattan, where the NRA demanded a jury trial rather than having the case decided by the judge, jury selection began on Tuesday.
The NRA’s demand for a jury trial in a jurisdiction where cancer and boils are more popular than the NRA raised more than a few eyebrows. The judge assigned to the case has been very fair and reasonable to this point, and most observers believe he would give the Association a fairer shake than a random group of Manhattan residents. The jury will only be involved in the “who did what, when, and was it right or wrong” phase of the trial, determining guilt or innocence. If they find that wrongs were committed, the second phase will be all on the judge to decide what to do to settle the matter while protecting the interests of innocent NRA members.
Early on, the judge took the dissolution of the NRA off the table, recognizing that such a move would be punishing NRA Members like you and I, the real victims.
The NY AG, Letitia James, contends that NRA members have been bilked out of between $60 million and something over $100 million, not to mention the additional $100 million or more spent on legal fees so far. If the AG proves her case to the jury’s satisfaction – which appears extremely likely – it would be a travesty for any additional funds taken or punitive action taken against innocent NRA members. Those who improperly benefitted from LaPierre & company’s actions and those who were responsible for protecting NRA assets but stood idly by and allowed the corruption to continue, even after it became public knowledge, are the ones who should pay for this mess. The NRA Board of Directors members, who failed to see and correct the problems for years, have chosen to circle the wagons around Wayne LaPierre and refused to take any substantive action to fulfill their fiduciary obligations to the Association and its members.
The speculation about another bankruptcy is running high because filing for bankruptcy would automatically put the NY suit on hold until the bankruptcy proceedings are settled, which could take another six months or more. It would also put several more millions of dollars into the pocket of NRA’s primary law firm. The filing would probably not sit well with either the New York judge or the judge in the bankruptcy court, especially since they’ve already played this card before. The NY AG and her charges wouldn’t go away, though. They’d either be delayed or merged into the bankruptcy proceedings.
In any case, the initial result of either the NY suit or another bankruptcy will almost certainly be the same: Removing top NRA executives and officers and appointing a Receiver or Trustee to oversee a total reorganization of the Association. The result will probably be about the same whether ordered by the NY Judge or another bankruptcy judge. The next step will be punitive actions emanating from the NY suit.
‘Tish’ James knows she has LaPierre & company dead to rights and won’t let go of this case. There’s also a good chance that she will follow this lawsuit with suits against individual officers and Directors for failure to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities, and criminal prosecutions against some of the key players are also a real possibility.
At a minimum, though, the entire Board should be removed or resigned, and a temporary Board assembled by leaders of the various State Associations should take over until a properly sized, permanent Board can be elected.
Along with the financial losses and steep declines in revenue and membership numbers, the damage that has been done to the NRA in the form of lost credibility and political power is inestimable. This is all going to hit particularly hard during the coming election season.
There’s a contingent of rights supporters who take the position that the NRA was never an effective defender of the Second Amendment and should be allowed to burn to the ground. That view is myopic. It ignores history and invites disaster for Second Amendment rights. No other group or collection of groups has the potential to replace the NRA in the next decade. The vast majority of NRA members won’t shift their support to some other organization. They’ll buy the NRA line that the whole thing was a vast left-wing conspiracy or throw up their hands and walk away.
I’m not suggesting that the NRA has a perfect record; they don’t, and I’ve never hesitated to criticize their frequent missteps. What I am saying is that all other national rights groups combined don’t come close to the NRA’s reach and potential clout. A strong and effective NRA could make a significant, positive difference in the future of gun rights in America. A crippled, depleted NRA could result in the demise of our rights in the near future.
I’ve joined my friends Judge Phil Journey, Rocky Marshall, and Dennis Fusaro in seeking seats on the NRA Board of Directors. We know we won’t be able to fix the Association overnight, but at least we’ll have a voice – and give you a voice – and maybe get a chance to use that voice to sway a judge along the way.
Ballots will be in the March issue of NRA magazines. If you get one, please give us your votes for an NRA that works for you.
Read Related: 4 Outsider Reform Candidates Nominated by NRA Members, LFG!
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs, and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization supports grassroots activists through education, analysis of current issues, and a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona, and Manassas, VA. Visit www.FirearmsCoalition.org.
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