LaPierre declines to say he breached trust of NRA at NY bench trial

MANHATTAN (CN) — Wayne LaPierre isn’t ready to say he violated the trust of the National Rifle Association and its members, even after a New York jury found he cost the nonprofit more than $5 million by spending its donor funds on luxury trips, designer suits and other personal buys.

Five months after the jury reached that verdict, LaPierre returned to a Manhattan courtroom Friday to take the witness stand in the second phase of the NRA’s legal battle in New York. The state attorney general wants LaPierre banned from rejoining NRA leadership for life, which LaPierre testified he’s fighting purely “on principle.”

“I believe I should be free to associate and speak out in my right of assembly under the First Amendment,” LaPierre said Friday. “On principle, I think I should be free. But I have no intention of doing anything with the NRA.”

LaPierre’s lawyer has pressed the same issue in court this week, repeatedly cross-examining state witnesses by asking them if they have “ever read the First Amendment” and believe in constitutional rights like free expression.

It’s been months since LaPierre helmed the NRA. The group’s longtime frontman resigned in January on the eve of trial, citing “health reasons” — later revealed to be chronic Lyme disease.

“I was diagnosed with that in December of 2022. It probably went undiagnosed six years before that,” LaPierre testified Friday, adding that he was under the “continuing care” of his medical team that deemed him medically unfit to work.

Despite these persistent health issues purportedly leading to his resignation, LaPierre revealed he had taken no significant steps to find an eventual successor. He testified that he promoted and worked with several people that he “thought might have the potential” to lead the NRA, but ultimately never made a succession plan.

It wasn’t until May that the NRA officially filled LaPierre’s shoes, when members elected Doug Hamlin to serve as the group’s CEO and executive vice president. Hamlin testified this week that he agreed LaPierre had “breached the trust of the NRA and its members.”

LaPierre declined to say the same Friday.

“As you sit here today, would you say in the past you breached the trust of the NRA?” state attorney Monica Connell asked.

“No, I wouldn’t,” LaPierre replied.

LaPierre’s battle against his state-suggested ban from the NRA has fueled speculation that he plans to return to the organization in some capacity. This week, board member Phillip Journey testified LaPierre would only be useful in a fundraising capacity, citing his likeness and name recognition.

Still, LaPierre testified he has no plans to seek paid employment with the NRA in the future.

“Given my health condition, I’ve been told to eliminate all stress,” LaPierre said. “I turn 75 in a few months. I want to get healthy.”

His testimony on Friday clocked in at just six minutes. None of the defense attorneys elected to cross-examine him.

In February, a jury of six New Yorkers agreed with the state’s accusation that LaPierre used the NRA as his “personal piggy bank” while serving as the group’s chief executive for more than three decades.

The jurors found LaPierre cost the NRA $5.4 million in monetary harm through the “violations of his statutory duties.” They also agreed he had already repaid the organization approximately $1 million, and ordered him to pay back the $4.4 million difference.

There don’t currently appear to be any plans from the NRA to collect that money, according to testimony this week from the nonprofit’s freshly elected president Bob Barr.

This week’s proceedings have been part of the second phase of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ legal battle with the NRA: a bench trial in which New York Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen will determine injunctive relief.

In addition to the ban on LaPierre, James seeks a court-appointed independent monitor to oversee the NRA’s financial compliance. In February’s verdict, the jury found that the NRA retaliated against whistleblowers and submitted false tax returns.

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