Summary

On January 10, 2020, Mildred “Millie” Hallow, who works in Wayne LaPierre’s executive office, sat for a deposition in the NRA’s litigation with their former vendor Ackerman McQueen. That deposition transcript was made public in a July 6, 2021 filing by Ackerman. NRA Watch reviewed the transcript and highlighted some testimony of note below.

Key Points

• Hallow testified about several aspects of a trip to Russia that NRA board members Pete Brownell and David Keene attended.  
  • Hallow testified that Maria Butina “was head of a Russian group called Right to Bear Arms and had interaction with the NRA.” (p.102). She further testified that Butiina, “As far as I know, she was the main person with whom they interacted to schedule the trip [to Russia].” (p 103-104)
  • When asked about persons affiliated with the NRA who attended the trip to Russia, Hallow said: “To my knowledge, Mr. Keene and Mr. Brownell were the only board members… and the rest were high donors who were either being cultivated or had already contributed, but I’m not sure.” (p.106) Hallow added that Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee “was recruited late for I guess [his] visibility and celebrity-ness.”
  • During her testimony, Hallow was presented with an email she wrote to Nicholas Perrine and Lisa Supernaugh about the payment for the Russia trip where she wrote, “Wayne approved these special projects involving outreach that Brownell has done.” Hallow confirmed that she was talking about Wayne LaPierre in the emails. (p. 111)
  • Hallow was further asked about a statement that Josh Powell made to the New York Times: “In order to facilitate the transfer of funds to Brownell, Millie falsely stated that Wayne approved of certain expenses when he had not. In fact, Millie apologized to me and others later for the misrepresentation.” When asked if this statement was true, Hallow testified: “I didn’t have a discussion with Josh per se, but when this was getting all messed up, I did apologize to Josh and Lisa that I had done this wrong to begin with.” (p.126-217)
• Hallow testified that before her time at the NRA, she “was charged with misappropriating funds from the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities” while she was working there. She pled guilty. (p.40) 
  • When Hallow’s criminal record was exposed in a blog post, she explained that Board members Sandy Froman, Marion Hammer, Carolyn Meadows, and “probably half a dozen” more “reached out to me to say that they valued me.” (p. 61)
  • Hallow acknowledged that as a convicted felon she cannot have access to firearms. When asked if there are firearms in the office at the NRA, Hallow testified that there are none “in my office.” (p. 62)
• When asked about LaPierre’s note taking at meetings, Hallow said “He had a lot of yellow pads. I don’t know — many he dragged around with him.” She continued: “He had various topics by yellow pad, and so he would go to different meetings and he would pull out. He had things that he was holding in his hands and then he would have a whole duffle bag of yellow pads, and when the topic changed he would pull out the yellow pad.” Regarding organization of the yellow pads, Hallow testified that “some of it was by topic, you know, violence in the street, criminal justice reform, all topics related to the Second Amendment and he — he pulled them out. That was kind of like his filing system.” (p.84-86) 
• When questioned about whether Wayne LaPierre’s travel agent made travel accommodations for Hallow’s son’s wedding in Minnesota, Hallow admitted that the travel agent “did do the arrangements for the buses from the wedding.” When asked specifically about whether the NRA paid the travel agent’s invoice for her son’s wedding transportation, Hallow testified: “I don’t remember this, but I think — I do remember arranging it with Gayle. I do not have any clarity where she and I discussed bill it to the NRA and I’ll reimburse, but that is what happened. At — that’s what happened.” (p. 138) 
• Hallow testified that she was not aware of any inappropriate charges she made to the NRA for personal expenses from 2017 forward. (p. 150) She did admit, though, that “there was a period of time in early 2000s where there — there was a review, and it was reviewed by the board and appropriate committees where there were some inappropriate expenses that I paid back.” She added, that the purchases were “p​rimarily clothing and some travel that ended up being personal rather than business is my recollection.” (p. 152-153)
• Hallow testified at length about some of the disagreements that occurred between LaPierre, board president Oliver North, and those at Ackerman McQueen around the 2019 NRA Annual Meeting. (p.166-188)