There is also a notable recent precedent for James’s actions. In June 2018, her predecessor, Barbara Underwood, filed a lawsuit to seek the dissolution of the Donald J. Trump Foundation as part of an agreement struck with the president and three of his adult children. New York investigators found that the purported charity had effectively served as a piggy bank for the president’s personal and political interests. Trump initially responded by vowing not to dissolve the foundation; the following December, he agreed to its dissolution as part of a settlement with Underwood’s office.
The NRA struck a similarly defiant note on Thursday after New York’s announcement. “This was a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend,” NRA President Carolyn Meadows said in a statement. “You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle. It’s a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda. This has been a power grab by a political opportunist—a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta.”
NRA lawyers also quickly filed a lawsuit in federal court on Thursday claiming that James had violated the organization’s First Amendment rights. The NRA accused her and the “New York Democratic Party machine” of mounting a politically motivated attack to undermine and destroy it. “James’s threatened, and actual, regulatory reprisals are a blatant and malicious retaliation campaign against the NRA and its constituents based on her disagreement with the content of their speech,” the NRA claimed in its complaint. “This wrongful conduct threatens to destabilize the NRA and chill the speech of the NRA, its members, and other constituents.”
There’s a stronger case to be made, however, that the NRA’s leadership has destabilized the organization more effectively than any state official ever could. In the complaint, which draws heavily from her office’s investigation and from efforts by journalists, James describes a constant stream of unjustified cash and perks that flowed from the NRA’s coffers into the hands of favored members of its upper ranks. LaPierre, who has served as the taciturn and incendiary face of the organization for more than a decade, was the recipient, and often the arbiter, of this largesse.
“LaPierre routinely abused his authority as Executive Vice President of the NRA to cause the NRA to improperly incur and reimburse LaPierre for expenses that were entirely for LaPierre’s personal benefit and violated NRA policy, including private jet travel for purely personal reasons; trips to the Bahamas to vacation on a yacht owned by the principal of numerous NRA vendors; use of a travel consultant for costly black car services; gifts for favored friends and vendors; lucrative consulting contracts for ex-employees and board members; and excessive security costs,” James’s complaint claims.
Over the years, LaPierre approved hundreds of thousands of dollars in NRA-funded private flights for himself, his wife, and other family members. He sought reimbursements from the NRA for tens of thousands of dollars in Christmas gifts for friends and family from swanky East Coast department stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. He spent more than $100,000 on golf club memberships in the D.C. area for “personal and business reasons.” LaPierre often cited nebulous “security concerns” to justify some of the expenses, which apparently included an armored vehicle after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
Others in LaPierre’s orbit also reaped the benefits of their organization’s funds. Wilson Phillips, a former NRA treasurer, drew up a contract to pay himself $30,000 a month for consulting services for the NRA after his retirement. The NRA’s current treasurer told James’s office that Phillips ultimately “never consulted for me.” An unnamed senior assistant of LaPierre routinely used the company card for inappropriate purchases, including roughly $18,000 as part of her son’s Minnesota wedding and high-end car services for herself and her family. “In August 2018, over the course of a two-week fundraising excursion in France, [she] authorized approximately $100,000 in black car expenses for two chauffeured vehicles,” the complaint claims.
Some NRA officials who caught wind of the spending sprees and other scandals soon found themselves on the outside of the organization. Foremost among them is Oliver North, who briefly served as the NRA’s president in 2018 and 2019. When North started scrutinizing some of the group’s financial practices, LaPierre allegedly demanded that he stay away, sent cease-and-desist letters, and tried to use a consulting contract that LaPierre originally helped him craft against him. North eventually warned the NRA’s executive committee of a “crisis that could affect its ability to operate as a nonprofit organization,” claiming he had a “fiduciary duty” to respond. He resigned as president shortly thereafter.
"fit" - Google News
August 07, 2020 at 09:03AM
https://ift.tt/2EZRcZf
New York's Punishment May Not Fit the NRA's Crime - The New Republic
"fit" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2SpPnsd
https://ift.tt/3aP4lys
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "New York's Punishment May Not Fit the NRA's Crime - The New Republic"
Post a Comment