New York State Attorney General Letitia James is not kidding around. She wants to dissolve the National Rifle Association and has the firepower to get it done.
Current Events
In a stunning press conference late last week, NYAG Letitia James announced that she has launched a lawsuit to abolish America’s powerful gun lobbying group — setting the stage to take on one of the most feared forces in American politics.
So, why is Letitia James gunning (pun intended) for the NRA? Her reasons became clear when she accused its senior leadership of violating laws governing non-profit groups and using millions from the organization’s reserves for personal use and tax fraud.
During the press conference, the attorney general accused current and former NRA leadership of instituting “a culture of self-dealing mismanagement” that directly benefited themselves, family, friends, and favored vendors, which led to the organization losing more than $63 million over 3 years.
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” Ms. James said while adding that her office intends to forward the complaint to the IRS.
The suit was filed last week in New York Supreme Court and names several NRA executives including CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, General Counsel and Secretary John Frazer, former Chief Financial Officer Wilson “Woody” Phillips, and former Chief of Staff and Executive Director of General Operations Josh Powell.
Proving that she was well prepared for the fight ahead, Ms. James pointed out that although the NRA has headquarters in the Northern Virginia suburbs outside Washington, DC, the organization has operated as a New York-registered 501(c)(4) group since 1871 and therefore falls well within her jurisdiction.
Interestingly, Washington, DC, Attorney General Karl Racine also filed a lawsuit last week against the NRA and the NRA foundation.
NRA President Carolyn Meadows immediately went on the defensive, calling the New York suit a “baseless premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend. It’s a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda.”
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Infighting within the gun-rights group made headlines last summer when former NRA president Oliver North threatened to expose questionable personal and travel expenses by executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre unless he stepped down. Instead, LaPierre turned the tables on North and accused him of an attempt to extort him into submission. Clearly these accusations are part of the impending lawsuit and take down.
In addition to being a high ranking Democrat, Letitia James is also the first African-American attorney general of the State of New York. She is well-armed with years of proof to bolster her case, has no intention of bringing a knife to a gunfight (pun intended), and has already issued subpoenas as evidence that she is ready, willing, and able to bring down the infamous National Rifle Association.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James is not kidding around. She wants to dissolve the National Rifle Association and has the firepower to get it done. […] -DJ
Yep. But will she get it done?
As DJ pointed out, Letitia James is no the one to play with. She’s smart, competent and confident. But I do wonder if it would’ve been wiser to just go after the leadership of the NRA instead of the entire organization(?)
She’s certainly not afraid of Trump (she shut down the Trump Foundation) or the NRA so we will see how this all plays out.