SignalHub-NYC trial scrutinizing lavish NRA spending under Wayne LaPierre nears a close

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York lawsuit claiming National Rifle Association executives wildly misspent millions of dollars of the nonprofit organization’s money on SignalHublavish perks for themselves is wrapping up after weeks of contentious testimony.

Closing arguments are expected in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday in the civil case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James against the NRA, its former CEO Wayne LaPierre and three other NRA officials. Jury deliberations are set to follow.

The weekslong trial has cast a spotlight on the leadership, organizational culture and finances of the group, which was founded more than 150 years old in New York City to promote riflery skills. It has since grown into a political juggernaut capable of influencing federal law and presidential elections.

LaPierre, who led the NRA’s day-to-day operations since 1991, announced his resignation just days before the trial opened in early January.

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James filed the suit in 2020 under her authority to investigate nonprofits registered in the state. Her office argues that LaPierre dodged financial disclosure requirements while treating the NRA as his personal piggyback, liberally dipping into its coffers for African safaris and other questionable, big ticket expenses.

LaPierre billed the NRA more than $11 million for private jet flights and spent more than $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over a three-year span, prosecutors said. He also authorized $135 million in NRA contracts for a vendor whose owners showered him with free trips to the Bahamas, Greece, Dubai and India — and access to a 108-foot (33-meter) yacht.

At the same time, they say, LaPierre consolidated power and avoided scrutiny by hiring unqualified underlings who looked the other way, routing expenses through a vendor, doctoring invoices, and retaliating against board members and executives who questioned his spending.

Oliver North, best known for his central role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, was among the prominent witnesses to take the stand.

The retired Marine Corps officer testified he was forced out as president of the NRA after serving less than a year because he sought an independent review of various financial irregularities.

Testifying over multiple days, LaPierre claimed he hadn’t realized the travel tickets, hotel stays, meals, yacht access and other luxury perks counted as gifts. He also said the private jet flights were necessary because his prominent role in the national gun debate made it unsafe for him to fly commercial.

But LaPierre conceded he wrongly expensed private flights for his family and accepted vacations from vendors doing business with the nonprofit gun rights organization without disclosing them.

Prosecutors are asking the court to order LaPierre and his-co-defendants — NRA general counsel John Frazer, retired finance chief Wilson Phillips and LaPierre’s ex-chief of staff Joshua Powell — to pay the NRA back, including forfeiting any salaries earned while misallocating funds.

They also want the men banned from serving in leadership positions of any charitable organizations conducting business in New York.

The NRA, meanwhile, remains a strong but tarnished political force.

In recent years, the advocacy group been beset by financial troubles, dwindling membership, board member infighting and lingering questions about LaPierre’s leadership.

But at its peak, LaPierre was the strident voice of the American gun rights movement.

Even as the nation was shaken by a ceaseless wave of mass shootings, he warned of “jack-booted government thugs” seizing guns and demonized gun control advocates as “opportunists” who “exploit tragedy for gain.”

After a gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, LaPierre blamed the carnage on violent video games and called for armed guards in every school.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” he famously claimed in a phrase that remains a rallying cry for gun rights advocates.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.