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pnwmom

(108,925 posts)
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 06:41 PM Apr 2019

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 organization’s 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 obtained—federal tax forms, charity records, contracts, corporate filings, and internal communications—a small group of N.R.A. executives, contractors, and venders has extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from the nonprofit’s 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.”
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As NRA Leadership Fight Spills Into Public, N.Y. Attorney General Opens Investigation (Original Post) pnwmom Apr 2019 OP
No Nonprofit Status for You! jpak Apr 2019 #1
Flush that shit right down the toilet. warmfeet Apr 2019 #2
LOL, idiots didn't twig to the fact that North is a corrupt scumbag... Thomas Hurt Apr 2019 #3
1977 Revolt in Cincinnati underpants Apr 2019 #4
Wow, I know some people who graduated from high school that year. PatrickforO Apr 2019 #17
wasn't this about the time the Southern Baptists Convention took a hard right? DBoon Apr 2019 #20
Probably underpants Apr 2019 #27
Thoughts and prayers. Freethinker65 Apr 2019 #5
"Stand Your Ground Ollie...you too Wayne" Submariner Apr 2019 #6
What a wonderful statement. TNNurse Apr 2019 #8
This could be big. Hope so. empedocles Apr 2019 #16
The nra should be charged with Maxheader Apr 2019 #7
Kick dalton99a Apr 2019 #9
Time for them to stage a violent gun battle where they all die in an epic bloodbath. NBachers Apr 2019 #10
Best way to stop bad guys with guns... lagomorph777 Apr 2019 #29
Want to know the best part? watoos Apr 2019 #11
The NRA has become little more than a organization used to rally the voters to the polls and cstanleytech Apr 2019 #12
YES and bluestarone Apr 2019 #13
NRA higher-ups playact at being "freedom-loving patriots" not fooled Apr 2019 #19
Good! Now for the churches. SergeStorms Apr 2019 #14
Start with Scarsdale Apr 2019 #22
Sic 'em, Tish. DinahMoeHum Apr 2019 #15
Boy, it sure doesn't seem like they deserve to keep their PatrickforO Apr 2019 #18
They're having the WORST WEEK EVER, but apparently, no one mentioned it to Red Don: Leghorn21 Apr 2019 #21
Right. The NRA Scarsdale Apr 2019 #23
Massaging - errr... I meant "messaging" lagomorph777 Apr 2019 #30
Would it be too much Scarsdale Apr 2019 #24
Wooodoggies! Hugin Apr 2019 #25
Boo fricking Hoo!!!! What goes around comes around. Stupid is what stupid does.......... Firestorm49 Apr 2019 #26
Newsflash: Gun Pirates Don't Play Well With Others. lindysalsagal Apr 2019 #28

Thomas Hurt

(13,903 posts)
3. LOL, idiots didn't twig to the fact that North is a corrupt scumbag...
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 06:57 PM
Apr 2019

naw....he is a patriot.........ooops.

underpants

(182,274 posts)
4. 1977 Revolt in Cincinnati
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 06:58 PM
Apr 2019

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/

underpants

(182,274 posts)
27. Probably
Sun Apr 28, 2019, 07:16 PM
Apr 2019

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.

Maxheader

(4,366 posts)
7. The nra should be charged with
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 07:09 PM
Apr 2019

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...

cstanleytech

(26,080 posts)
12. The NRA has become little more than a organization used to rally the voters to the polls and
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 08:22 PM
Apr 2019

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)
13. YES and
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 08:29 PM
Apr 2019

They send members to sporting good stores to SIGNUP new members! seen them in Scheels sporting goods stores!

not fooled

(5,791 posts)
19. NRA higher-ups playact at being "freedom-loving patriots"
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 09:32 PM
Apr 2019

their real roles are as genuine grifters fleecing the gun nuts. Which they are quite successful at.

SergeStorms

(18,891 posts)
14. Good! Now for the churches.
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 08:45 PM
Apr 2019

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)
22. Start with
Sun Apr 28, 2019, 05:58 AM
Apr 2019

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.

PatrickforO

(14,516 posts)
18. Boy, it sure doesn't seem like they deserve to keep their
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 09:17 PM
Apr 2019

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)
21. They're having the WORST WEEK EVER, but apparently, no one mentioned it to Red Don:
Sat Apr 27, 2019, 11:14 PM
Apr 2019
”Heading to Indianapolis to speak at the big NRA Conference.
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!”






Scarsdale

(9,426 posts)
23. Right. The NRA
Sun Apr 28, 2019, 06:03 AM
Apr 2019

laundered Russian money for Fat Donnie. I wonder what the organization did with their "cut"?

Scarsdale

(9,426 posts)
24. Would it be too much
Sun Apr 28, 2019, 06:24 AM
Apr 2019

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)
25. Wooodoggies!
Sun Apr 28, 2019, 08:38 AM
Apr 2019


"—a small group of N.R.A. executives, contractors, and venders has extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from the nonprofit’s budget"



I am in the wrong business... But, then, I like to think I've got a conscience.

lindysalsagal

(20,440 posts)
28. Newsflash: Gun Pirates Don't Play Well With Others.
Mon Apr 29, 2019, 12:12 PM
Apr 2019

With nothing but selfish greed to motivate their enterprises, the pirates ultimately turn on each other. Like the rats they resemble.

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