Myth
“The investigations and scandal surrounding the NRA are just part of a liberal witch hunt.”
Fact
NRA employees, board members, and even executives have come forward to report mismanagement and out-of-control executive spending at the NRA. For example, it was NRA Board President Oliver North, a staunch conservative who had a long-running show on Fox News, who raised questions about the NRA’s exorbitant spending on outside lawyers. It was the NRA’s own accounting department that put together a list of whistleblowing concerns that documented allegations of inappropriate spending at the NRA. Several NRA board members, who are ardent gun rights supporters, have pointed to the NRA’s mismanagement, including board member Philip Journey, who testified that “it became apparent that the corporate governance and the…system of checks and balances was essentially nonexistent,” and the corporate governance structure at the NRA “was worse than I ever imagined.”1Trial testimony of Phillip Journey In RE: NRA Bankruptcy Trial, April 13, 2021, 82:21 – 83:3. Journey is a Republican judge from Kansas. A major NRA donor even took the dramatic step of filing a class action lawsuit against the NRA for the alleged financial mismanagement of the organization.
Finally, the NRA has admitted in its IRS filings to providing certain excess benefits to its executives.2Sonia Moghe, “NRA says its aware of ‘significant diversion of its assets’ in tax filing,” CNN, November 26, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/25/politics/nra-assets-diversion-tax-filing/index.html; Mark Maremont, “NRA Acknowledges New Findings of Excessive Benefits Paid to CEO Wayne LaPierre”, Wall Street Journal, November 23, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/nra-acknowledges-new-findings-of-excessive-benefits-paid-to-ceo-wayne-lapierre-11637706699. These admissions by the NRA itself on tax filings, which include spending on private jet travel and hair and make up for LaPierre’s wife, undercut the NRA’s argument of being the target of a political witch hunt. Moreover, the NRA willingly entered into a $2.5 million settlement over its failed Carry Guard insurance scheme (a form of “murder insurance” that New York regulators found violated New York insurance law).3Jeff Mordock, “NRA to Pay $2.5M fine, halt insurance sales to settle New York case,” Washington Times, November 18, 2020, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/nov/18/nra-pay-25m-fine-halt-insurance-sales-new-york/.