MANHATTAN (CN) — A former top lobbyist for the National Rifle Association said in court Thursday that he was “disgusted” to learn that the group’s longtime CEO Wayne LaPierre put more than $250,000 in luxury clothing expenses on the NRA’s tab.
Christopher Cox was once viewed as the likely successor to LaPierre. He ran the NRA’s lobbying arm, the NRA Institute for Legislative Action from 2002 to 2019. During that time, he was effectively second-in-command behind LaPierre, and was one of the most recognizable faces at the NRA.
But on Thursday, Cox testified against his former employer in New York’s civil case against LaPierre and the NRA. New York Attorney General Letitia James is accusing LaPierre of using the NRA as his own “personal piggy bank,” drawing funds from various arms of the nonprofit to back personal expenses.
Cox on Thursday recalled discovering that LaPierre was running expenses through the institute. As its executive director, he asked a peer to review those expenses. He was denied.
“Nobody sees those,” Cox claimed he was told.
LaPierre’s errant spending habits created an “unhealthy” relationship with the NRA’s outside PR firm, the Oklahoma-based Ackerman McQueen, Cox claimed. LaPierre is accused of using Ackerman McQueen to book flights, vacations and other personal expenses, then paying them back using the NRA’s donor money.
“I believe it was untouchable and unhealthy,” Cox said of LaPierre’s unquestioned relationship with the firm.
Cox claimed that he routinely clashed with Ackerman McQueen over the firm's work with the NRA. At the time, he said he couldn’t understand why LaPierre was so steadfast in backing their projects, which Cox called “arrogant” and “tone-deaf.”
“I thought Ackerman McQueen was not strategic in their messaging,” Cox told the court. “I thought they overcharged for the product they were delivering … I don't think anyone battled with that agency more than I did.”
When Cox voiced these concerns, he said LaPierre shut them down vehemently.
“I’ve only heard Wayne LaPierre use profanity twice,” Cox said, claiming that both were times that he questioned Ackerman McQueen’s work.
Cox and LaPerre didn’t always see eye-to-eye when it came to strategy. Seven years before he resigned, Cox reportedly urged the NRA to take a subtler approach to gun advocacy following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. LaPierre opted for a different route and pushed for armed security guards in schools.
“I didn’t always agree,” Cox testified, which he said was okay at the time. “But I started to have questions and growing concerns, particularly over the final two years, that ultimately led to my departure in 2019.”
Cox said the lack of financial compliance started to bother him. He said he was unsettled to learn of LaPierre’s yacht trips and vacations from NRA vendor David McKenzie.
“It’s inappropriate to accept things of value from vendors,” Cox said.
He added that he knew LaPierre tended to fly private. Despite the defense’s claims that LaPierre did so for safety, Cox didn’t buy it.
“I think this was something that was not necessary for the betterment of the NRA,” Cox said.
But in 2019, reports started to circulate that LaPierre had billed more than $250,000 in luxury clothing to the NRA.
“It was one of the final straws for me,” Cox said. “I was floored. I was extremely disgusted.”
Cox claimed that he drafted his letter of resignation that same morning.
“I was tired of the infighting,” he said. “I was tired of just the overall chaos.”
Before he officially resigned, Cox was placed on administrative leave over accusations that he was attempting a coup against LaPierre. Cox said he was “devastated.”
“I was so pissed off,” Cox said. “I never had any intention of running against Wayne LaPierre. It was absurd.”
Cox said that, initially, he did expect to eventually replace LaPierre. As their relationship soured, however, Cox said that those aspirations waned.
“He kept saying, ‘You’re the future of the organization, you’re going to take over,’” Cox said.
LaPierre was largely responsible for moving the NRA farther to the political right in his over 30 years as CEO. Prior to his leadership, the organization was not inherently a political one, and focused more on general gun safety and advocacy. Cox said he hoped to make the organization less polarizing if given the reins.
“I was not going to go out and throw red meat underserved to the American people,” he said Thursday. “I thought I could do it in a way that was not so controversial.”
But LaPierre didn’t resign until earlier this month, more than four years after Cox left and just days before the civil corruption trial was set to begin. Cox now runs his own government consulting firm out of Alexandria, Virginia. He’ll return to the witness stand on Friday to finish his testimony.
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