Decision

Longtime NRA business partner Membership Marketing Partners (MMP) moved the Court to remake the Creditor’s Committee in the NRA bankruptcy – arguing that certain members, in particular Ackerman McQueen and donor David Dell’Aquina, were inappropriately given committee membership. MMP’s motion is attached below.  The NRA joined in the request.

In a clear setback for the NRA, the Court denied MMP’s request to reconstitute the Creditors Committee. Judge Hale said he did not see Ackerman and Dell’Aquila as aligned and the evidence presented was not persuasive.  The Judge then admonished parties to “try to keep things civil” and noted “I recognize there are strong feelings about the NRA” and said he thought heated out of court statements were bleeding over into his Court. 

In fact, Judge Hale interrupted the attorney for MMP to say he was “taken aback” by her pleadings that questioned the integrity of the US Trustee (specifically the allegation that the US Trustee “stacked the deck” against the NRA). During argument, MMP briefly put the NRA’s interim CFO Sonja Rowling on the stand. The US Trustee elicited testimony that the NRA had omitted 6 of its largest creditors, including the IRS, from its initial filing with the Court listing its 20 largest creditors.