Filing Summary

This filing is an affidavit of the NRA General Counsel. It describes the entanglement of the NRA and Ackerman, and notes that the NRA and Ackerman have shared a common interest in several lawsuits.

Key Points

• John Frazer is Secretary and General Counsel of the NRA. (Pg. 1.)
• He affirms that Ackerman “provided an array of services which were highly sensitive and entrusted to Ackerman only due to the relationship of trust and confidence that had been established during the course of a long relationship.” Ackerman was “empowered … to fashion crisis public relationships strategy; to manage the NRA’s branding; to administer many of the NRA’s digital assets, including NRA TV; to purchase goods and services on the NRA’s behalf …; and to deploy the NRA’s intellectual property.” (Pg. 2.)
• “The NRA routinely shared confidential information with Ackerman and its employees including, on many occasions, privileged information. Ackerman employees worked alongside, and were functionally interchangeable with, NRA employees in some situations.” (Pg. 2.)
• Frazer describes several instances where he had privileged communications with Ackerman employees, including, among others: (1) legal advice “regarding accounting for charitable expenditures relating to NRATV”; (2) legal advice “regarding messaging and disclaimers pertaining to a Carry Guard [an NRA self-defense insurance program] infomercial and promotional emails”; (3) legal advice “regarding specific provisions of contracts with NRA firearms instructions”; and (4) legal advice “regarding donor privacy issues pertaining to an upcoming article in a magazine jointly produced by Ackerman and NRA staff on behalf of the NRA.”
• Frazer mentions several lawsuits in which Ackerman and the NRA “shared common legal interests” including: “[1] a lawsuit filed in 2018 by the sculptor Anish Kapoor against the NRA regarding a depiction of one of Mr. Kapoor’s works in an NRA-related video shot by Ackerman; [2] an investigation … by the New York Department of Financial Services … relating to Carry Guard …; and [3] a lawsuit filed by the NRA against its affinity-insurance broker, Lockton Affinity LLC.” (Pg. 4.)