Longtime NRA Leader LaPierre Faces Trial In NY

For decades, Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s longtime leader, has been a survivor.

LaPierre is among four defendants in the suit brought by James in 2020. I Photo: Gage Skidmore Flickr

He has endured waves of palace intrigue, corruption scandals, and embarrassing revelations, including leaked video footage that captured his inability to shoot an elephant at point-blank range while on a safari, as reported by Danny Hakim for The New York Times.

But now, LaPierre, 74, faces his gravest challenge, as a legal showdown with New York Attorney General Letitia James goes to trial in a Manhattan courtroom.

James, in a lawsuit filed amid an abrupt effort by the NRA to clean up its practices, seeks to oust him from the group for corruption and mismanagement. After closing its media arm, NRATV, in 2019, it has largely lost its voice, and LaPierre rarely makes public pronouncements.

Membership has plummeted to 4.2 million from nearly 6 million five years ago.

Revenue is down 44% since 2016, according to its internal audits, and legal costs have soared to tens of millions a year. When the NRA filed for bankruptcy in Texas nearly three years ago, the step was part of a strategy to move to the state amid the New York investigation.

But a Texas judge dismissed the case, saying the NRA was using the filing "to address a regulatory enforcement problem, not a financial one." Now, longtime insiders say the organization may be reaching a point where a legitimate bankruptcy filing is necessary.

LaPierre is among four defendants in the suit brought by James in 2020. The others are John Frazer, the NRA’s former general counsel, and Wilson Phillips, a former finance chief.

The fourth defendant, Joshua Powell, was the organization’s No. 2 man but later turned against the NRA and called for universal background checks for those buying guns as well as the implementation of red flag laws that allow police to seize firearms from people deemed dangerous.

The attorney general’s office has had settlement talks with Powell but no deal has been cut.

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