Judge temporarily bars LaPierre from NRA leadership

A New York judge barred Wayne LaPierre from returning to lead the National Rifle Association.

State Supreme Court Judge Joel Cohen issued a 10-year ban following a jury’s verdict that found the NRA and its executives guilty in a civil corruption trial.

However, he rejected New York Attorney General Letitia James’s proposal to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the organization’s finances and report to the court for three years.

James was also looking to impose a permanent ban on LaPierre returning to lead the NRA or its affiliates rather than a 10-year restriction.

In February, a Manhattan state court jury concluded the trial’s first phase, finding LaPierre misused millions of NRA funds and ordering him to repay nearly $4.4 million to the organization.

At the beginning of this month, former NRA finance chief Wilson Phillips agreed to a 10-year ban from managing nonprofit funds in New York.

Phillips was accused of concealing and facilitating LaPierre’s personal expenses, including private jet flights and other luxuries for him and his wife. 

He remains liable for $2 million in damages to the NRA for his role in these activities.

“The damages portion of the case we presented, as well as the earlier trial before the jury, demonstrated that the NRA had a stunning lack of accountability and its leaders engaged in illegality and self-dealing,” James said in a statement. 

“After years of corruption, the NRA and its senior leaders are finally being held accountable,” she said.

Before the trial began in January, LaPierre announced his resignation, citing health problems, after serving as the NRA’s CEO and executive vice president for over 30 years.

However, jurors found grounds for LaPierre’s removal from the NRA, determining he had breached his duty to act in good faith. 

They reached the same conclusion about John Frazer, the group’s corporate secretary and former general counsel.

LaPierre was found liable for $5.4 million in monetary harm to the NRA, although he has already repaid at least $1 million of that amount.

Frazer was not found to have caused any monetary harm to the group, and Cohen did not impose any restrictions on him.

LaPierre’s attorney, P. Kent Correll, argued against the 10-year ban on his client.

Correll said LaPierre was retired and “not coming back” to the NRA. 

However, he said his client wants to “keep his right to associate freely with whomever he wants and to speak freely.”

The NRA opposed the attorney general’s independent monitor proposal, arguing that James could not prove any legal violations and claiming that it had addressed past problems by hiring new leadership.

For instance, the organization replaced Frazer as general counsel in May. Yet, he was later reelected to serve as corporate secretary.

As a nonprofit charitable corporation, the NRA is required by law to use its assets to benefit its members and advance its mission.

In the last few years, NRA membership dues and contributions have sharply declined.

According to court documents, dues dropped from about $170 million in 2018 to nearly $62 million in 2023, and contributions were nearly cut in half during that period.