MANHATTAN (CN) — Wayne LaPierre is spending his waning days as the National Rifle Association’s CEO on the witness stand of a Manhattan courtroom, where he admitted Monday that billing some gaudy personal expenses to the nonprofit was “not the right thing to do.”
LaPierre resumed his testimony on Monday in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ corruption case against him, the NRA and two executives. James claims that LaPierre for years treated the NRA like his “personal piggy bank” when he charged it for a myriad of luxury goods and services, while failing to disclose several conflicts.
Among those expenses were “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of hair and makeup charges for his wife, LaPierre admitted Monday. The 74-year-old testified Friday that he also billed the NRA for private jet travel, black car service and other luxurious buys.
But on Monday, LaPierre obediently took responsibility for charging these expenses back to the organization he ran for more than three decades.
“It was not the right thing to do,” LaPierre said.
“It was wrong and it shouldn’t have happened, correct?” NRA lawyer Sarah Rodgers asked.
“Correct,” LaPierre said.
The exchange appeared to be part of a defense strategy to prove that the NRA has cleaned up its act since the spending controversy, thereby minimizing the need for state oversight or severe punishments. The organization is being accused of covering up LaPierre’s spending and silencing whistleblowers who raised concerns.
But under questioning from Rodgers, LaPierre claimed that he acted alone and that no one on the NRA’s board was even aware of what he was doing. He also said that he’s since paid the NRA back for all of these scrutinized expenses with interest.
“Do you think you’re all square with the NRA?” LaPierre’s lawyer Kent Correll asked.
“Yes,” LaPierre said.
“Is there a gift you can think of that you did not pay the NRA back for?” Correll asked.
“No,” LaPierre replied
James alleges that LaPierre ran his personal purchases through Ackerman McQueen, the NRA’s longtime public relations firm, which then billed the nonprofit for LaPierre’s expenses. LaPierre added Monday that this perhaps was not appropriate, nor among the “best practices,” but he thought it was being done for “safety and confidentiality.”
Safety was notoriously a big concern for LaPierre. He told the jury Monday that he was the victim of a swatting incident, in which swarms of law enforcement descended on his home late one night.
“We were running around with our heads cut off,” LaPierre said. “My wife was saying 'don't go out there, someone's going to kill you…’ I walked out with my hands up. About 15 police officers with their guns drawn ran at me.”
LaPierre added that he was stalked several times, including one instance in which someone was “taking pictures through windows.” He said he was also targeted in an identity theft scheme, and claimed his banks and credit cards were invaded.
LaPierre used those security concerns to justify some of his NRA-funded personal expenses, like a hefty landscaping bill for his residence. He said Monday that the landscapers installed bushes around his house to thwart stalking threats and built a wall behind his house so attackers “couldn’t shoot into the office from the back hill” on his property.
It’s been a consistent argument for LaPierre and his defense attorneys throughout the case. During opening arguments at trial, Correll claimed LaPierre was told that he “must fly private” for security reasons. Witnesses have since disagreed.
“I think this was something that was not necessary for the betterment of the NRA,” the NRA’s ex-top lobbyist Christopher Cox told the jury earlier this month.
LaPierre also claimed that buying a $6.5 million Dallas mansion with the NRA’s help, which included a $70,000 NRA check as a down payment, was necessary for his safety. He doubled down on this claim Monday, when he told the court it was actually Ackerman McQueen’s idea for him to buy the house, not his.
“They were looking for a safe house in a gated, guarded community for safety,” he said.
Similar to Friday, LaPierre was pulled from the stand mid-testimony on Monday for health reasons. Correll claimed that LaPierre’s chronic Lyme disease, which was cited as a reason for LaPierre’s departure from the NRA, makes it difficult for him to testify past 3 p.m. because of fatigue and eye pain.
He’ll have to return to the stand on Tuesday to wrap up his testimony. The attorney general’s office expects to wrap up its case by the end of this week.
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