Attorneys in the NRA trial deliver closing arguments and send the case to the jury
New York state attorneys wrapped up their case against the National Rifle Association on Thursday, ending a closely watched civil standoff in which leaders of the nation's most prominent gun rights group were accused of financial misconduct and corruption.
Over the past six weeks, attorneys for New York Attorney General Letitia James have outlined a case that portrays the NRA as a mismanaged organization with little loyalty to its mission to defend the Second Amendment or to the gun owners who have that right appreciate. Monica Connell, representing the attorney general's office, began her closing arguments Thursday by comparing the defendants to children who grabbed cookies from a jar and were “caught with crumbs on their faces and shirts.”
At the heart of the case was the state's portrayal of the group's former leader, Wayne LaPierre, as a benevolent financier who used NRA funds to pay for private jets, luxury vacations and the occasional ride on a superyacht.
“This case is about corruption: misuse of money spent on airplanes, black cars, five-star hotels, hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuits, multimillion-dollar deals with insiders, payments to loyal board members and widespread violations of internal controls.” Ms. Connell said to the nearly full Manhattan courtroom.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Friday.
Mr. LaPierre, 74, resigned just before the trial began in New York, ending more than three decades as head of the organization. Nevertheless, he had testified in the case and agreed to expensive travel and other benefits. He also spent many days in the front row of the courtroom, as government lawyers — and even his own — described his sometimes troubled leadership of the group.
Defendants, in addition to Mr. LaPierre, included John Frazer, the NRA's general counsel; Woody Phillips, a former chief financial officer; and the NRA itself.
Ms. James is seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages and wants to ban the individual defendants from working in New York nonprofits. Ms. James has special jurisdiction over the NRA because it was founded as a nonprofit in New York 148 years ago.
In closing arguments on Thursday, Mr. LaPierre's attorney, Kent Correll, focused on his client's successes within the organization. Mr. LaPierre had been working to broaden the group's appeal amid challenges from states seeking to implement gun control measures, Mr. Correll said, and did not know what was going on inside the nonprofit.
“He was on a journey to build relationships because he knows that's what he's good at,” Mr. Correll said. He also attacked Ms. James, saying she had “created a hostile environment for organizations she doesn't like.”
Mr. Correll defended Mr. LaPierre's status within the NRA, noting his outsized role in recruiting celebrities to secure donations, trying to convince jurors that the private flights were necessary for Mr. LaPierre to make such connections lay.
“He understood influencers before 'influencers' became a word,” he said.
The trial, in state Supreme Court Justice Joel M. Cohen's courtroom, featured well-known figures from the last three decades of American politics, including Oliver North, a former NRA president who once rose to fame as an architect of American politics. Iran-contra affairand Mr. LaPierre himself, one of the most outspoken defenders of the Second Amendment.
The other defendants sought to distance themselves from Mr. LaPierre, including Mr. Frazer, whose lawyer, William Fleming, emphasized his client's course correction through Mr. LaPierre's leadership.
“John Frazer is the epitome of good faith,” Mr. Fleming said.
Ms. James, a Democrat, filed the case in 2020, alleging a series of fraudulent activities by Mr. LaPierre and other NRA officials, including diverting millions of dollars in NRA funding for personal use, awarding contracts to close associates and relatives, and “It appears they are handing out lucrative no-show contracts to former employees to buy their silence and continued loyalty.”
The state's lawyers seemed skeptical that NRA officials had realized the error of their ways, with Ms. Connell saying the group only began making course corrections after they knew it was being investigated. She compared their actions to burglary and said even burglars who return stolen items should be held accountable.
“That is the behavior they chose,” she said, noting that when Mr. LaPierre resigned from the organization, he walked away with “no discipline, no suspension.”
Mr. LaPierre said earlier in the lawsuit that he had made governance changes while he was head of the NRA and had paid back about $300,000 to the group in April 2021.
Much has changed since Ms. James began investigating the NRA four years ago. The organization, once a lobbying giant courted by presidential candidates, has seen its influence decline.
Membership has fallen from almost six million five years ago to 4.2 million. According to internal audits, the organization's revenues have fallen 44 percent since 2016 and legal costs have risen to tens of millions of dollars per year.