On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) formally requested the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division investigate whether the National Rifle Association abused the bankruptcy system and potentially committed fraud through its failed bankruptcy filing earlier this year. 

In April, a federal judge dismissed the bankruptcy, finding that it had not been filed in good faith. Leader Schumer’s request for a formal investigation comes at a time when the NRA is still mired in legal trouble after spending millions on its bankruptcy filing only to have it thrown out. The failed bankruptcy continues to cause problems for the organization, with its full board minutes from January 2021 hitting the public record from the trial just last week, providing a number of damaging revelations. 

The AP reports: 

“They recently told the judicial branch of government that they are bankrupt after the lawsuit by Tish James, and at the same time they’re saying they’re bankrupt, they’re spending millions of dollars on ads to stop universal background checks,” Schumer said, referencing New York Attorney General Letitia James. “That demands an investigation by the Justice Department.”

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In dismissing the NRA’s bankruptcy case, Judge Harlin Hale wrote that it appeared “less like a traditional bankruptcy case in which a debtor is faced with financial difficulties or a judgment that it cannot satisfy and more like cases in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme.”

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“The bottom line is the NRA shot itself in the foot when they declared bankruptcy and still have millions of dollars,” [Schumer] said.