On November 15, 2019, the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post reported that NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre received a massive salary increase in 2018, according to the NRA’s most recent tax filings.

The Washington Post reported, “LaPierre’s pay increase comes at a time when the gun group has been under pressure to explain large payments to top executives, even as it has cut spending on firearms training and political activities and frozen pension benefits for employees.”

The Wall Street Journal wrote that, “The compensation figures for the NRA officers, reported Friday in the group’s annual Internal Revenue Service filing, come as the gun-rights group is under scrutiny over disclosures about Mr. LaPierre’s expenses and numerous financial dealings between the NRA and its top officials or their relatives.”

Other revelations included in the media reporting of the tax filing include:

• Wayne LaPierre’s overall compensation increased significantly from 2017 to 2018, and totaled at least $2.15 million according to the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
• Former NRA president Oliver North, who was ousted during the NRA’s 2019 annual convention, received $1.38 million in 2018 from the NRA’s former public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen, to host a show on now-defunct NRATV.
• Eleven members of the NRA’s 76-person board of directors received payment from the NRA, totaling over $600,000.
• Ackerman McQueen was the NRA’s largest outside vendor in 2018, being paid $32 million, “plus $6.3 million for out-of-pocket expenses, including media buys and ‘reimbursement of travel and business expenses.’”
• Brewer Attorneys and Counselors, the NRA’s outside law firm now-leading the NRA’s legal efforts related to the New York and Washington D.C. attorneys general investigations, and the NRA’s legal disputes with Ackerman McQueen, became the NRA’s third largest outside vendor in 2018, receiving $13.8 million.
• Crow Shooting Supplies, a business controlled by former NRA president Pete Brownell since 2011, “received $3.2 million from the NRA Foundation.” Last year’s tax filings were the first time the foundation disclosed the “longstanding arrangement,” which has existed since 2008, “under which it buys millions of dollars in products from” Crow. Brownell resigned from the NRA board earlier this year.