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Anastasis

Anastasis 23394

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12 hours ago, HenryJames said:

 

 

In fighting at NRA.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nras-wayne-lapierre-says-he-is-being-extorted-pressured-to-resign-11556314763

NRA’s Wayne LaPierre Says He Is Being Extorted, Pressured to Resign

Group’s longtime leader says Oliver North, president of the NRA, wants him out

 
 
im-70043?width=620&aspect_ratio=1.5Wayne LaPierre, who spoke Friday at an annual meeting of the National Rifle Association, has been at the top of the organization for three decades. PHOTO: DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
By 
Mark Maremont
April 26, 2019 5:39 p.m. ET
 

Longtime National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre has told the group’s board he is being extorted and pressured to resign by the organization’s president, Oliver North, over allegations of financial improprieties, in a battle stirring up one of the nation’s most powerful nonprofit political groups.

In a letter sent to NRA board members late Thursday afternoon, Mr. LaPierre, the group’s CEO and executive vice president, said he refused the demand. Instead he called on board members to “see this for what it is: a threat meant to intimidate and divide us."

Mr. North sent his own letter to the board late Thursday evening, in which he said his actions were for the good of the NRA and that he was forming a crisis committee to examine financial matters inside the organization, according to people familiar with its contents.

Mr. North previously had sent a longer letter to the board’s executive committee detailing new allegations of financial improprieties involving more than $200,000 of wardrobe purchases by Mr. LaPierre that were charged to a vendor, according to the people. One of those people described Mr. LaPierre’s letter as an “angry reaction” to Mr. North’s longer letter.

The behind-the-scenes brawl is taking place amid the gun-rights group’s big annual meeting, at which President Trump spoke Friday.

Insiders say matters will come to a head by Monday, when the NRA’s full 76-member board is set to meet.

The fight stems in part from a dispute between the NRA and its longtime advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen Inc., which resulted in a lawsuit filed by the NRA earlier this month. In the suit, the group claimed Ackerman McQueen had refused to provide records justifying its billings. Ackerman McQueen has called the lawsuit “frivolous” and “inaccurate.”

One of the NRA’s claims was that for months it had been stymied in attempts to get details of the ad firm’s contract with Mr. North, a former Marine Corps officer and Iran-Contra figure who hosts a documentary program on NRATV produced by Ackerman McQueen.

According to Mr. LaPierre’s letter to board members, which the The Wall Street Journal has reviewed, Mr. North called an NRA senior staffer Wednesday to convey a message to the NRA chief. In the call, according to the letter, Mr. North said that unless Mr. LaPierre resigned, Ackerman McQueen was prepared to send a letter to the NRA board that would be “bad for me, two other members of my executive team and the Association.”

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The letter, Mr. LaPierre wrote the board, “would contain a devastating account of our financial status, sexual harassment charges against a staff member, accusations of wardrobe expenses and excessive staff travel expenses.”

Mr. LaPierre added that after the call “others informed me that I needed to withdraw the NRA lawsuit against [Ackerman McQueen] or be smeared.”

 

A spokesman for Ackerman McQueen said it would have no comment.

 

William A. Brewer III, an outside attorney for the NRA, said, “many of the issues raised by Col. North have been the subject of review and investigation by the NRA since early last year. In our view, the items involving Mr. LaPierre may reflect a misinformed view of his and the NRA’s commitment to good governance.”

As for the wardrobe costs, NRA second Vice President Carolyn Meadows said the expenses dated back 15 years and “a wardrobe allowance is not that extraordinary” for the NRA chief, who has “participated in literally thousands of speeches and hundreds of television appearances during that time.”

The letter also claims that Mr. North told the NRA staffer the letter wouldn’t be sent if Mr. LaPierre promptly resigned. If Mr. LaPierre supported Mr. North’s continued tenure as NRA president, the letter claimed, Mr. North stated he could negotiate an “excellent retirement” package for the NRA chief.

Mr. LaPierre wrote that the threat was couched, “in the parlance of extortionists, as an offer I couldn’t refuse. I refused it.”

In the letter, Mr. LaPierre said Mr. North was paid “millions of dollars annually” by Ackerman McQueen, for a dozen episodes of his series, “Oliver North’s American Heroes.” But only three episodes have been delivered thus far, Mr. LaPierre wrote, and the NRA has demanded to know what it is paying for “in light of these production shortfalls.”

Ackerman McQueen “appears to have responded indirectly by trying to oust me,” Mr. LaPierre wrote.

The dispute pits two high-profile conservative figures against each other. Mr. LaPierre has headed the NRA for close to 30 years. During his tenure, the group shifted from being a grass-roots organization to a nationally powerful advocacy organization with strong political sway when it comes to its core gun-rights message.

Mr. North is a conservative folk hero from his tenure in the 1980s on the National Security Council and his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. He became NRA president a year ago as the group searched for a higher-profile figure as its finances sagged after Mr. Trump’s election eased concerns about more gun regulations under another Democratic administration.

The NRA president must stand for reelection every year, but in recent years most presidents have served for two years. Mr. North’s first term is scheduled to end Monday.

—Zusha Elinson contributed to this article.

 

Write to Mark Maremont at mark.maremont@wsj.com

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Bama Chick
Bama Chick

Broken brains.

Horn Dog
Horn Dog

Received a membership solicitation from NRA.  Sending them this in their prepaid envelope   

HornOnTheBayou
HornOnTheBayou

My thoughts and prayers are with Mr. LaPierre. There, that should take care of the problem. 

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SDG

SDG 3319

Posted
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11 minutes ago, horncyclist said:

I think cause the government has F16s, tanks and actual assault rifles. Good luck keeping them in check.

And the people that fly those are citizens; don’t be obtuse.  

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28716

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8 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

But LaPierre was upset that North wanted his role as President to be paid as well?

why do I guess that if a proper and open audit was performed, there would be many questionable activities and LaPierre could be looking at potential jail time.

Is it illegal to embezzle Russian money intended for donation to Republican campaign funds?

Edited by WhatTheBuck
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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45500

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/politics/trump-nra-investigation-new-york/index.html

Quote

President Donald Trump on Monday accused the New York attorney general's office of illegally investigating the National Rifle Association and called on the group, which has been roiled by a leadership fight, to "get its act together quickly."

Weird.  I wonder why the president would care about this so much?

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13414

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You have to guess that the NRA doesn't want much of their internal workings being subjected to public scrutiny. As an example, apparently Oliver North was paid via an outside firm that billed the NRA for their services.  Publicly it looks like North works for free as the NRA President while his real salary was indirectly coming from the NRA pocketbooks. You have to wonder how many other sweetheart deals are out there.

Many donors don't like it when they see their hard earned dollars going into the pockets of others. It can kill non-profiles or significantly hurt them. Wounded Warriors took a huge hit when it came out their leaders had excess spending on themselves and fired employees for speaking up about it. Wounded Warriors was smart to fire everyone involved.  NRA donors want to see their money going to supporting the 2A or promoting safe gun usage. Not buying LaPierre a jet or mansion.

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Hugo Stiglitz

Hugo Stiglitz 23360

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42 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

You have to guess that the NRA doesn't want much of their internal workings being subjected to public scrutiny. As an example, apparently Oliver North was paid via an outside firm that billed the NRA for their services.  Publicly it looks like North works for free as the NRA President while his real salary was indirectly coming from the NRA pocketbooks. You have to wonder how many other sweetheart deals are out there.

Many donors don't like it when they see their hard earned dollars going into the pockets of others. It can kill non-profiles or significantly hurt them. Wounded Warriors took a huge hit when it came out their leaders had excess spending on themselves and fired employees for speaking up about it. Wounded Warriors was smart to fire everyone involved.  NRA donors want to see their money going to supporting the 2A or promoting safe gun usage. Not buying LaPierre a jet or mansion.

Many people don't want it to be discovered the NRA became a weaponized arm of the Kremlin to get Trump elected.  Look at where all their money was going.  It was going to their propaganda/media arm which was echoing the same shit coming out of Russia 24/7 and the cherry on top is Maria Butina running influence operations out in the open.  The only missing pieces are the banking and financial records which probably involve many shell companies and pass throughs. 

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Buck Strickland

Buck Strickland 380

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As an ex-member, I got a call from these fuckers.  It wasn't 5 seconds into his script and started in about AOC was going to take our guns.

I let him finish and then asked him if people actually believe these scare tactics bullshit, he hung up on me.

Edited by Buck Strickland
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Chooky

Chooky 13302

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The other day I watched an entire episode of a show on the NFL Channel called 'Good Morning Football.'  It opened up my eyes and warmed me to the prospect of just handing over this government to a handful of ex-Soviets.  That program is a pretty good indicator that we might just be all done here.

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YChang

YChang 3431

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, Buck Strickland said:

As an ex-member, I got a call from these fuckers.  It wasn't 5 seconds into his script and started in about AOC was going to take our guns.

I let him finish and then asked him if people actually believe these scare tactics bullshit, he hung up on me.

Wow, not even a half hearted attempt to overcome that?

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13414

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, YChang said:

Wow, not even a half hearted attempt to overcome that?

It's not like call center agents are true believers. They're either paid by the hour so they could care less, or they are paid by the donation. In either way, they learn to quickly move onto the next # to call.

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YChang

YChang 3431

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

It's not like call center agents are true believers. They're either paid by the hour so they could care less, or they are paid by the donation. In either way, they learn to quickly move onto the next # to call.

Yep, yep. I meant that they didn't even bother giving them a script of some sort to use.

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Chooky

Chooky 13302

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, YChang said:

Yep, yep. I meant that they didn't even bother giving them a script of some sort to use.

"Sir, are you just mindlessly reading from a script?"

"According to the script here, uh, no.  No I am not."

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89452

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Buck Strickland said:

As an ex-member, I got a call from these fuckers.  It wasn't 5 seconds into his script and started in about AOC was going to take our guns.

I let him finish and then asked him if people actually believe these scare tactics bullshit, he hung up on me.

I haven’t been a member in many years, since the 90s.  

They still spend a shitload sending me crap, trying to get me to come back.  

Land I’ve moved several times, and somehow they always find me.  

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Gil Bang

Gil Bang 25898

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4 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

You have to guess that the NRA doesn't want much of their internal workings being subjected to public scrutiny. As an example, apparently Oliver North was paid via an outside firm that billed the NRA for their services.  Publicly it looks like North works for free as the NRA President while his real salary was indirectly coming from the NRA pocketbooks. You have to wonder how many other sweetheart deals are out there.

Many donors don't like it when they see their hard earned dollars going into the pockets of others. It can kill non-profiles or significantly hurt them. Wounded Warriors took a huge hit when it came out their leaders had excess spending on themselves and fired employees for speaking up about it. Wounded Warriors was smart to fire everyone involved.  NRA donors want to see their money going to supporting the 2A or promoting safe gun usage. Not buying LaPierre a jet or mansion.

read The New Yorker piece.  NRA is a sewer of corruption 

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Cajun

Cajun 11675

Posted
Posted
On 7/31/2018 at 3:30 PM, Brisketexan said:

Did it a long time ago.  For many of the reasons cited in the piece.

I've done more to foster hunting by actually taking newbies hunting, introducing them to a day in the field, etc., than by the NRA's fear-mongering bullshit does.  I've created several life-long hunters that way.

Gun shows, the NRA -- they went the way of the wingnuts a long time ago.

Russia bullshit aside.

Exactly this.

Love my guns.  Love the lifestyle.

Wayne LaPierre and Co aren't anywhere near in that circle.  I still go to gunshows b/c that's where the deals are, but I can't stand the losers that congregate there anymore than I can stand whining pussies who start shivereing everytime they hear of or see an image of a firearm.

Put both groups on an island and nuke it from orbit.

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Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32345

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$97,000 in legal fees per day alone---$24 million total in the past year. Couldn't happen to a better bunch of folks.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/leaked-documents-nra-racked-up-dollar24-million-in-legal-bills-3?ref=home

 

Quote

The NRA has racked up huge legal bills over the last year that threaten to debilitate the organization, according to documents posted anonymously online that appear to be written by the group’s ex-president Oliver North. The bills highlight the organization’s extraordinary legal challenges. A person close to the matter confirmed the authenticity of the documents to The Daily Beast. Stephen Gutowski of the Washington Free Beacon was the first reporter to flag the documents on Friday. 

Senior NRA officials disputed the documents’ claims but not their authenticity.

 

Quote

The documents include a confidential memo that North and NRA official Richard Childress sent to the NRA’s general counsel and audit committee chairman, dated April 18, 2019—the week before North was dramatically deposed as NRA president. (The NRA suspended its board’s longtime lawyer at the same time.) In the memo, North claimed to be “deeply concerned about the extraordinary legal fees the NRA has incurred” from outside attorney Bill Brewer. North and Childress then called for an independent review of Brewer’s invoices. Brewer has defended his fees in the past, telling the Wall Street Journal, “We’re a premium law firm, we make no bones about that.”

 

Quote

Lawyers for North did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reached by phone, Childress declined to comment. 

“The Brewer invoices are draining NRA cash at mindboggling speed,” North and Childress wrote, adding that the fees “pose an existential threat to the financial stability of the NRA." 

“This is a fiscal emergency,” they continued, “yet we have been unable to get management to engage an outside, independent review to ensure these bills are necessary and reasonable.”

 

Quote

The memo says Brewer charged the NRA $24,324,290 since they engaged him last year, and that some of that had been reimbursed as part of a settlement of litigation against an insurance company—leaving the NRA to pay $18.5 million.

North and Childress estimated that at the current rate, the NRA is racking up nearly $100,000 in legal bills every day—an eye-popping number. 

“$97,000+ a day is a stunning amount of money for any organization to pay,” they wrote. “It cries for an outside, independent review.”

 

Quote

They also wrote that they made multiple requests for an outside review of the bills, including two of CEO Wayne LaPierre, who refused to order such an audit. 

“If the bills are reasonable and properly documented, why the refusal to conduct an independent review?” they wrote. 

They also said the Brewer firms’ engagement letter is “inconsistent with industry standards,” claimed the NRA doesn’t properly manage the firm’s work, questioned why the firm did not give the NRA a nonprofit discount, and claimed Brewer “personally” worked to stop an outside review.

 

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On 4/29/2019 at 2:02 PM, Chooky said:

"Sir, are you just mindlessly reading from a script?"

"According to the script here, uh, no.  No I am not."

Almost every thread in CR...

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