Wayne LaPierre Resigns From The NRA Before Corruption Trial Begins

Before the civil corruption trial began in New York, Wayne LaPierre resigned from the NRA.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

Wayne LaPierre, the embattled longtime leader of the National Rifle Association, is resigning from the nation’s largest gun-rights group on the eve of a civil trial in which the New York attorney general is seeking his ouster, as well as financial penalties, for years of alleged corruption at the nonprofit organization.

…

The face-off with North helped spark a probe by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who in 2020 sued the NRA, LaPierre and three of his top lieutenants—alleging that they had treated the nonprofit charity as a personal piggy bank under the lax oversight of a compromised board, in violation of state law.

James’s office has alleged that LaPierre spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in NRA charitable assets on private plane trips for himself and his family, vacationed several times in the Bahamas on the yacht of an NRA vendor, accepted other lavish gifts from NRA vendors, and arranged lucrative no-show or little-show financial deals with board members and former executives, among other allegations.

The NRA Has Seen Its Money And Power Diminish

NRA membership is down 50% and revenue has declined by 40%. Signs are also growing that the NRA’s political power is diminishing. As anti-gun violence groups like March For Our Lives have been effective at mobilizing the national consensus toward common-sense gun legislation.

There is also evidence that the NRA has developed connections with Putin’s Russia, and the organization has been accused of funneling Russian money to Republican candidates. 

The NRA still holds quite a bit of sway over many elected Republicans, who fear the organization’s membership, but the gun manufacturing lobby is not the fearsome political behemoth that it once was.

Wayne LaPierre is gone, and the civil corruption trial in New York means that things might be about to get a lot worse for the NRA.

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