As NRA Leadership Fight Spills Into Public, N.Y. Attorney General Opens Investigation
Last edited Sat Apr 27, 2019, 07:40 PM - Edit history (4)
Source: NPR
Even as the NRA struggled to handle its internal divisions, an external threat emerged this weekend in the form of a new investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"The Office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James has launched an investigation related to the National Rifle Association (NRA)," a spokesperson for the attorney general told NPR. "As part of this investigation, the Attorney General has issued subpoenas. We will not have further comment at this time."
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2019/04/27/717808885/oliver-north-says-he-will-not-seek-a-2nd-term-as-nra-president
https://www.thedailybeast.com/nra-suspends-top-lawyer-while-oliver-north-warns-group-could-lose-nonprofit-status
Steve Hart, the longtime lawyer for the National Rifle Association board, has been suspended from that role, two people with knowledge of the move told The Daily Beast.
In addition, Col. Oliver North-who announced his departure from the powerful gun rights group this morning-has warned board members that the organization could lose its nonprofit status.
AND SOME BACKGROUND FROM APRIL 17:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/secrecy-self-dealing-and-greed-at-the-nra
LaPierre is right that the N.R.A. is troubled; in recent years, it has run annual deficits of as much as forty million dollars. It is not unusual for nonprofits to ask prospective donors to help forestall disaster. What is unusual is the extent to which such warnings have become the central activity of the N.R.A. Even as the association has reduced spending on its avowed core mission--gun education, safety, and training--to less than ten per cent of its total budget, it has substantially increased its spending on messaging. The N.R.A. is now mainly a media company, promoting a life style built around loving guns and hating anyone who might take them away.
SNIP
Loesch and Noir have become the primary public faces of the N.R.A.; at events, enormous banners feature their images alongside those of LaPierre and Chris Cox, the organizations top lobbyist. But Loesch and Noir are not technically employed by the N.R.A. Instead, they are paid by Ackerman McQueen, a public-relations firm based in Oklahoma. In at least one year, Loesch earned close to a million dollars, according to a source who has seen her contract.
SNIP
The N.R.A. and Ackerman have become so intertwined that it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. Top officials and staff move freely between the two organizations; Oliver North, the former Iran-Contra operative, who now serves as the N.R.A.s president, is paid roughly a million dollars a year through Ackerman, according to two N.R.A. sources. But this relationship, which in many ways has built the contemporary N.R.A., seems also to be largely responsible for the N.R.A.s dire financial state. According to interviews and to documents that I obtainedfederal tax forms, charity records, contracts, corporate filings, and internal communicationsa small group of N.R.A. executives, contractors, and venders has extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from the nonprofits budget, through gratuitous payments, sweetheart deals, and opaque financial arrangements. Memos created by a senior N.R.A. employee describe a workplace distinguished by secrecy, self-dealing, and greed, whose leaders have encouraged disastrous business ventures and questionable partnerships, and have marginalized those who object. Management has subordinated its judgment to the vendors, the documents allege. Trust in the top has eroded.
jpak
(41,741 posts)Pound sand Motherfuckers!
warmfeet
(3,321 posts)Buh-bye assholes.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)naw....he is a patriot.........ooops.
underpants
(182,274 posts)NRA: 'Revolt at Cincinnati' molded National Rifle Association
The incident is known as the Revolt at Cincinnati. A group of reformers, led by former NRA President Harlon Carter and outspoken gun-rights advocate Neal Knox, brewed tension inside the organization over the leadership's wavering stance on gun control.
About 30,000 delegates attended the annual meeting May 21, 1977. Reformers wore blaze orange hunting caps and communicated via walkie-talkie around the convention floor. The NRAleaders shut off the air conditioning to discourage them.
Still, the NRA was mostly for sportsmen, and Rich even testified to Congress in support of a ban on inexpensive handguns known as "Saturday night specials." Then began the internal strife.
In 1975, the NRA formed the Institute for Legislative Action, a lobbying group headed by Carter, but there was little funding. The NRA board really hoped to tone down the politics to attract donors like the Ford Foundation to fund a $27 million conservation and recreation center in Raton, N.M. They also voted to move their headquarters to Colorado Springs, Colo., away from the politics in Washington, D.C.
The conflict culminated in the 1977 revolt.
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/08/revolt-cincinnati-molded-nra-did-you-know-jeff-suess-schism-within-national-rifle-association-led/404628002/
PatrickforO
(14,516 posts)The 1977 revolt. I had no idea.
DBoon
(22,286 posts)interesting
underpants
(182,274 posts)Atwater tapped into this with God Guns and Gays as the pillars of the Reagan Revolution.
The gays part was a demand from a big finder of the Republicans - Rev. Moon. He also kept Falwell afloat in the early years.
Another element I wasn't aware until recently was the "Sagebrush Rebellion". These were the Cliven Bundy types. They were pissed that Carter had r claimed federal land and was charging grazing rights. Homesteading was still going on until Carter did that. Reagan's people reached out to the Sagebrush crowd but not openly I don't think. It was such a small group that I think they did it through backchannels or just winks and nods.
Freethinker65
(9,932 posts)And thanks NewYorker!!
Submariner
(12,485 posts)shoot first and ask questions later.
TNNurse
(6,911 posts)Imagine an organization too corrupt for Oliver North.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)Maxheader
(4,366 posts)Creating discord in americu and aiding and abetting the drug cartels...
This is sure as hell more of a threat to our national security
than unfair trade practices from other countries...
dalton99a
(81,065 posts)NBachers
(17,001 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)...is thousands of other bad guys with guns.
watoos
(7,142 posts)Barr has no jurisdiction over the NY A.G.
cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)to vote for a specific political party and here is a hint its not the Democratic party they are being rallied to support.
bluestarone
(16,720 posts)They send members to sporting good stores to SIGNUP new members! seen them in Scheels sporting goods stores!
not fooled
(5,791 posts)their real roles are as genuine grifters fleecing the gun nuts. Which they are quite successful at.
SergeStorms
(18,891 posts)Too many churches are hiding behind tax exemptions while being up to their armpits in government interference. It's time to put a big-ass stop to that as well.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)the worst offenders, like Franklin Graham, Jefress , Pat Robertson and the "pool boy" guy. All cozy with tRump, excusing his transgressions. Then move down to the churches. Graham stated that Maleria tRump is the "classiest first lady ever" A nude model/escort!!!! Gold digger of the lowest order married to the orange pig in the WH. Time to clean house, drain the swamp in DC.
DinahMoeHum
(21,737 posts)PatrickforO
(14,516 posts)nonprofit tax-exempt status.
Seriously, if they are only spending 10% or less of their budget on education and the rest on messaging, they've gone the wrong direction really quick.
I noticed the same thing with the Komen Foundation when it came out against abortion. They were spending more and more on messaging and fundraising and less and less on their central mission, which SHOULD have been women's health.
All you have to do is look at the annual reports of these things and you can tell right off who is legit and who is not.
Leghorn21
(13,520 posts)Love being in Indiana. The @NRA is getting stronger & stronger
and doing some really great and important work. Having their
powerful support has been vital to #MAGA!
Link to tweet
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)laundered Russian money for Fat Donnie. I wonder what the organization did with their "cut"?
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)to hope for, that the RNC has an equally successful annual meeting? Surely there are people at the top who want to replace McConnell as their "leader" Hasn't he filled his coffers to the breaking point yet? Maybe some of the NRA members will open their eyes and minds to just what is done with their dues? It goes to enrich the already rich!! North makes $1 Million a year? What a joke. Only in America can the worst crooks and traitors rise to the "top", eh?
Hugin
(32,778 posts)
"a small group of N.R.A. executives, contractors, and venders has extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from the nonprofits budget"
I am in the wrong business... But, then, I like to think I've got a conscience.
Firestorm49
(4,002 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,440 posts)With nothing but selfish greed to motivate their enterprises, the pirates ultimately turn on each other. Like the rats they resemble.