MANHATTAN (CN) — State lawyers for the New York Attorney General’s Office rested their corruption case Monday against the National Rifle Association and its longtime frontman Wayne LaPierre.
State lawyer Monica Connell — who delivered opening statements for the attorney general’s office four weeks ago — rested after bringing on the plaintiff's final witness Monday, Eric Hines, their first and only expert, who is a forensic accountant at the management consulting group StoneTurn.
Guided by a lengthy 99-slide presentation, Hines testified that he found “a number of consistent control violations” when examining the NRA’s finances between 2010 and 2022, the years at issue in the attorney general’s suit.
Hines studied LaPierre’s relationship with NRA vendor David McKenzie, the NRA’s use of public relations firm Ackerman McQueen, payments to NRA board members and other items called to question in the trial thus far, finding issue with all of them. He said that he found the “presence of fraud risk indicators,” as well as breaches “in NRA policies, procedures and internal controls” in the group’s handling of these various business relationships.
Hines cited the NRA’s contract with McKenzie, a film producer who frequently brought LaPierre onboard his yachts, as one primary area of concern. He testified that the NRA board approved a TV production contract with McKenzie, only to discover that LaPierre had actually entered into a different contract with him months prior.
“The control was not followed due to the fact that the contract was executed before it was subject to a board review,” Hines said. “It speaks to the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of a control environment.”
Hines added that the discrepancies between the two contracts resulted in McKenzie being paid $15.7 million more than if he had been on the contract approved by the board.
For the attorney general’s office, it was just another example of LaPierre using NRA funds to benefit himself and his inner circle. New York Attorney General Letitia James claims that LaPierre for years used the NRA as his “personal piggy bank,” siphoning the nonprofit’s donations to fund his luxurious lifestyle while failing to disclose conflicts of interest, like his relationship with McKenzie.
Listed as defendants alongside the NRA and LaPierre is Wilson “Woody” Phillips, the NRA”s longtime finance chief, and John Frazer, the organization’s general counsel. Both are accused of helping LaPierre cover up his personal expenses by bypassing internal controls and shielding the bills from other employees.
Since early January, the jury heard testimony from a number of former NRA executives and board members, many of whom feel they were retaliated against for blowing the whistle on LaPierre’s errant spending.
Among them was Christopher Cox, an ex-top lobbyist for the group, and Oliver North, a former NRA president — both of whom claimed they were scapegoated and ousted for a fictional “coup” against LaPierre after they demanded more transparency into his spending.
After the plaintiffs rested on Monday, each of the defendants’ attorneys pushed for a directed verdict against a handful of the attorney general’s claims. Lawyers for the NRA claimed that the organization’s board had no knowledge of LaPierre and the other individual defendants’ alleged misconduct.
“Here, there has been no showing of bad faith by the NRA’s board of directors,” the group argued in a Monday court filing. “The NYAG has proven only violations of internal NRA policy by individual defendants and employees — without the knowledge, much less the approval, of the board.”
Lawyers for the individual defendants took issue with their clients being considered “trustees” of the NRA’s charitable assets under New York State nonprofit law.
Judge Joel Cohen declined to issue a ruling on the directed verdict requests on Monday. He invited the parties to brief the issue and deferred ruling until then.
The defense then called its first witness on Monday: former U.S. Congressman Bob Barr, a Republican from Georgia who currently serves as the First Vice President of the NRA. Barr delivered a brief but glowing testimony on behalf of the NRA and its former CEO in LaPierre. He rebuked the “wrong” claims that the organization was overspending on legal aid.
“Facing the threats that the NRA’s facing and the litigation, it would be irresponsible … not to have the most competent and highly respected lawyers handling our cases,” Barr said.
Barr lauded LaPierre as a man who has “dedicated a lifetime” to bettering not just the NRA, but the United States as a whole. He conceded that “as have all of us, he’s made mistakes.”
LaPierre could owe the NRA millions for those mistakes, should the Manhattan jury rule against him. The six-week trial entered its penultimate week on Monday; closing arguments are slated for Feb. 15.
Follow @Uebey
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
Victims’ immigration info May 7, 2024 -
