Former NRA head Wayne LaPierre has had a rough last several years. Frankly, the NRA has been swamped with controversy and legal troubles for those years, too. Granted, many of those troubles are due to a rabidly anti-2A state government in New York, but some people say that some of the difficulties are legitimate.
I’m not a lawyer, so, I won’t weigh in on that.
What I can say, though, is that LaPierre was on the receiving end of some really bad news this past week, the kind of news that nobody likes to get. Caden Pearson writes,
A New York jury found former National Rifle Association (NRA) boss Wayne LaPierre liable in a civil case on Friday, ordering him to pay $4.3 million in damages for the mismanagement and misuse of charitable funds.
The verdict concludes a trial in the civil lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General’s Office, accusing Mr. LaPierre and the NRA of questionable financial and administration practices during his tenure from 2014 to 2022.
The six-person jury found that Mr. LaPierre violated his fiduciary duties, causing $5.4 million in damages to the NRA.
Notably, they recognized that he had repaid just over $1 million to the charity, which reduced the net damages.
Pearson continues:
The Manhattan jury found that Mr. LaPierre had misused millions of dollars from the organization’s funds to make personal luxury purchases over a span of 30 years.
Now, granted, New York isn’t known as the most gun friendly state in the nation or the most friendly towards politically conservative or libertarian politics, in general (just ask Donald Trump).
With that being the case, though, I’m not sure that LaPierre will be able to get this overturned to avoid these penalties. After all, where can he go from here except to more courts in New York? Seems like it could be a losing proposition.
But we’ll have to see where LaPierre goes from here, both in terms of this court case and in terms of employment since stepping down as head of the NRA. It could be interesting to watch.
