by On the eve of a legal battle in New York, Wayne LaPierre told board members Friday that he would resign as the longtime head of the National Rifle Association.
LaPierre, 74, has led the NRA, once one of the country’s most prominent lobbying organizations, for more than three decades. But his resignation came as he faced his most serious challenge yet: a corruption trial in Manhattan amid a legal showdown with New York Attorney General Letitia James. Jury selection has already begun and Mr. LaPierre has been in the courtroom for part of it. Opening arguments were scheduled for early next week.
LaPierre’s resignation, effective Jan. 31, did not arise from an agreement with the attorney general’s office, and James said Friday that he hoped the trial would move forward. LaPierre’s former spokesman, Andrew Arulanandam, will become the NRA’s interim executive director. The development was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
“With pride in all we have accomplished, I announce my resignation from the NRA,” LaPierre said in a statement. “I have been a licensed member of this organization for most of my adult life and will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend Second Amendment freedom. “My passion for our cause burns deeper than ever.”
The announcement came during a board meeting in Irving, Texas. The NRA said LaPierre had attributed his decision to “health reasons.”
Since James began investigating the organization four years ago amid reports of uncontrolled spending practices, the NRA has said it has undertaken a reform effort. On Friday, the group reiterated that it was “committed to good governance” and said it had already “accepted reimbursement, with interest, for LaPierre’s alleged excessive profit transactions.”
But LaPierre was seen as facing an uphill battle in trying to convince a New York judge to keep him in office, given what has already been made public about his alleged mismanagement. Late last year, perhaps anticipating his departure, LaPierre promoted Arulanandam, a longtime loyalist.
Now, Mr. LaPierre The resignation will change the Manhattan case, in which James had been trying to overthrow him.
She is still trying to prevent Mr. LaPierre from holding any position in the group. She also seeks financial sanctions for him and two other defendants. A fourth defendant, Joshua Powell, LaPierre’s former top deputy, reached a deal with the attorney general’s office late Friday, agreeing to pay $100,000 in restitution and a permanent ban from serving as an official at nonprofit organizations that They operate in New York. .
The financial sanctions will fall on the NRA, which is a nonprofit group founded in New York and which falls under the jurisdiction of Ms. James.
“The end of the Wayne LaPierre era at the NRA is a significant victory in our case,” James said in a post on social media Friday evening. “LaPierre’s resignation validates our allegations against him, but will not absolve him of responsibility. “We look forward to presenting our case to the court.”
LaPierre played a leading role in transforming gun culture in America, but the last half-decade of his tenure at the NRA was marked by scandals and internal turmoil. In recent years, the group has been in a tailspin.
Membership has plummeted since almost six million five years ago to 4.2 million today. Revenue is down 44 percent since 2016, according to internal auditsand legal costs have ballooned to tens of millions a year.
However, the gun rights movement has become a stronghold of Republican politics during LaPierre’s years as head of the NRA. A temporary ban on assault weapons was enacted early in his term; Today, such measures are a failure for Republicans, despite the proliferation of mass shootings.
LaPierre’s departure was the latest surprising turn in the NRA’s strategy, which has been unpredictable since it tapped a Texas lawyer, William A. Brewer III, in 2018 to become the organization’s top outside counsel. Brewer was the architect of a 2021 bankruptcy filing that was kept secret from the organization’s general counsel and most of its board of directors. He was eventually dismissed by a Texas judge.
Brewer, a Democrat, also recently won the support of the American Civil Liberties Union in a federal lawsuit; That lawsuit accuses former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his administration of misusing his authority by discouraging banks and insurers from doing business with the NRA.
LaPierre’s testimony at trial is likely to focus heavily on his spending practices. He was a regular customer for more than a decade at a Zegna boutique in Beverly Hills, where he spent nearly $40,000 in a single outing in May 2004, billing it through an NRA contractor.
He also spent more than $250,000 on trips to, among other places, Palm Beach, Florida, Reno, Nevada, the Bahamas and Lake Como in Italy. He has argued that these were legitimate business expenses.
As the corruption case has dragged on, LaPierre’s allies have dwindled, with some of his sharpest critics coming from the NRA.
Powell, the defendant who reached a plea deal Friday, was the organization’s second-in-command for a time, but then turned against LaPierre’s leadership and even called for some gun control measures, including universal background checks for those who They buy weapons.
“This has been a long time coming and too late after governing through more than 30 years of corruption,” Powell said in an email about LaPierre’s departure. “At this point, the NRA is little more than a shell of itself after hemorrhaging hundreds of millions in legal fees. The NRA will need a strong and dynamic new leader to dig itself out of the deep hole it finds itself in.”
Gun control groups were glad to see LaPierre gone.
“Thoughts and prayers,” said Nick Suplina, a former senior counsel and special counsel for the attorney general’s office who now works for the gun control advocacy group Everytown.
“I think the attorney general sought the removal of Wayne LaPierre as head of the NRA and she got what she wanted,” he added.
