The 'Americans Getting Shot' Thread

[Seekingasylum]

I think if you had the wit and knowledge you might have stumbled over Von Clausewitz in an attempt to express what you may have thought you might mean i.e War is merely an extension of diplomacy by other means.

Who knows, you are just babbling.

[taxexile]

an ex civil servant, with no university background, barracked for 20 years in the worlds largest brothel, infused marinated and soaked with a pathological and toxic hatred for his fellow man, for his country of birth and the country he now lives in has the gall to criticise the usa, the country that has done more, apart from the uk of cours, to drag the world out of its 18th century poverty and disease and into an age of wealth, health benefits, industrial and technological advancement, all thanks to their industriousness, their intelligence, their democracy and their seats of learning whilst the third world shitholes, ruled by the despots and terrorists that decry the usa and the west still remain wedded to their stone age religious dogma resulting in conflict and poverty.

god bless america!

[cyrille]

Get some fkin paragraphs, ya seedy old troll.

Or just space.

Not being pedantic, but nobody's going to bother otherwise.

[taxexile]

except you.

having another quiet day eh?

[S Landreth]

he has been found dead

Live updates: Maine shootings rampage found dead, sources say

A news conference will be held at 10 p.m. ET.


edit: Robert Card, mass shooting suspect found dead | Maine Mass Shooting Live

[Seekingasylum]

an ex civil servant, with no university background, barracked for 20 years in the worlds largest brothel, infused marinated and soaked with a pathological and toxic hatred for his fellow man, for his country of birth and the country he now lives in has the gall to criticise the usa, the country that has done more, apart from the uk of cours, to drag the world out of its 18th century poverty and disease and into an age of wealth, health benefits, industrial and technological advancement, all thanks to their industriousness, their intelligence, their democracy and their seats of learning whilst the third world shitholes, ruled by the despots and terrorists that decry the usa and the west still remain wedded to their stone age religious dogma resulting in conflict and poverty.

god bless america!

Have you been sucking Septic cock again, Tax?

Yehudi, you are becoming more absurd by the day. Perhaps all that Old Testament blood letting by the Jews has got you all of a lather and stirred parts not troubled for quite sometime, eh?

Honestly, if there was one thing that gets you harder than money, it’s kissing Septic arse.

Oy vey!

PS I went to two universities but couldn’t quite reconcile tilling the loam of academe with shagging and getting high. Quite fancy it now, to tell you the truth.

PPS The crazed gunman evidently suffered a paranoid schizophrenic episode some time ago and sought medical intervention. Of course, his possession of military grade weaponry was not considered of any relevance, this is America after all, The Land of The Free and resolutely stupid, and thus the inevitable occurred. But, in electing a new Speaker and third in line for POTUS in 5imes of stress, America is in safe hands given his belief God will deliver us from Evil and prayer will protect everyone who believes.
God, what fucking idiots.

[harrybarracuda]

[S Landreth]

^did you finally find out he is dead?

on day two

[Backspin]

The relevant part starts at 4:40

[harrybarracuda]

USA! USA! etc.

A 23-year-old woman was shot dead on Christmas Eve after an argument with her brothers about presents, police in Florida have said.
Two teenage brothers have been arrested, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Abrielle Baldwin was shot in the chest by her 14-year-old brother while she was holding her baby in a carrier, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in a news conference.
The shooting happened after the three siblings went Christmas shopping with their mother and Ms Baldwin's two sons.
They then went to their grandmother's house, where they were "involved in a verbal altercation over Christmas gifts", the sheriff said.
"They had this family spat about who was getting what and what money was being spent on who," he said.
Ms Baldwin tried to get the two brothers to stop arguing by saying "it's Christmas", Sheriff Gualtieri said.
The 14-year-old threatened to shoot his sister "and shoot the baby too" before he fired the gun, the sheriff said.
She fell to the ground but the 11-month-old was not hurt because it was in a carrier, he said.
The 14-year-old was then shot by his 15-year-old brother, who tossed the gun away and fled, the sheriff said.

Woman shot dead by younger brother in row over Christmas presents, Florida police say | US News | Sky News

[S Landreth]

• California law banning most firearms in public is taking effect as the legal fight over it continues

A California law that bans people from carrying firearms in most public places will take effect on New Year's Day, even as a court case continues to challenge the law.

A U.S. district judge issued a ruling Dec. 20 to block the law from taking effect, saying it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and deprives people of their ability to defend themselves and their loved ones.

But on Saturday, a federal appeals court put a temporary hold on the district judge's ruling. The appeals court decision allows the law to go into effect as the legal fight continues. Attorneys are scheduled to file arguments to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in January and in February.

The law, signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, prohibits people from carrying concealed guns in 26 places including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos.

The ban applies regardless of whether the person has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. One exception is for privately owned businesses that put up signs saying people are allowed to bring guns on their premises.

[S Landreth]

• Wayne LaPierre resigns as NRA leader, days before start of his civil trial

Wayne LaPierre resigned as leader of the National Rifle Association on Friday, ending his decadeslong reign over the prominent gun rights group, days before the start of his civil trial in New York.

In announcing his departure, LaPierre, the organization’s executive vice president, said he has been a “card-carrying member” of the NRA for most of his adult life and that he would “never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend Second Amendment freedom.”

“My passion for our cause burns as deeply as ever,” LaPierre said in a statement.

__________

• LaPierre, Longtime N.R.A. Leader, Faces Trial That Could End His Reign

A lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general against Wayne LaPierre and three other N.R.A. insiders accuses the gun rights group of decades of corruption.

For decades, Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s longtime leader, has been a survivor. He has endured waves of palace intrigue, corruption scandals and embarrassing revelations, including leaked video that captured his inability to shoot an elephant at point-blank range while on a safari.

But now, Mr. LaPierre, 74, faces his gravest challenge, as a legal showdown with New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, goes to trial in a Manhattan courtroom. Ms. James, in a lawsuit filed amid an abrupt effort by the N.R.A. to clean up its practices, seeks to oust him from the group after reports of corruption and mismanagement.

Much has changed since Ms. James began investigating the N.R.A. four years ago. The organization, long a lobbying juggernaut, is a kind of ghost ship. After closing its media arm, NRATV, in 2019, it has largely lost its voice, and Mr. LaPierre rarely makes public pronouncements. Membership has plummeted to 4.2 million from nearly six million five years ago. Revenue is down 44 percent since 2016, according to its internal audits, and legal costs have soared to tens of millions a year.

When the N.R.A. filed for bankruptcy in Texas nearly three years ago, the step was part of a strategy to move to the state amid the New York investigation. But a Texas judge dismissed the case, saying the N.R.A. was using the filing “to address a regulatory enforcement problem, not a financial one.” Now, longtime insiders say, the organization may be reaching a point where a legitimate bankruptcy filing is necessary.

Even with the N.R.A. moribund, Mr. LaPierre’s legacy as a lobbyist, if not as a marksman, remains intact. The gun rights movement has become a bulwark of red state politics during his more than three decades at the group’s helm. In recent years, significant federal gun control measures have been a nonstarter for Republicans despite a proliferation of mass shootings.

Mr. LaPierre is among four defendants in the suit brought by Ms. James in 2020. Others include John Frazer, the N.R.A.’s general counsel, and Wilson Phillips, a former finance chief. The fourth defendant, Joshua Powell, was the organization’s second-in-command for a time, but later turned against it and even called for universal background checks for those buying guns and so-called red flag laws that allow the police to seize firearms from people deemed dangerous.

The attorney general’s office has had settlement talks with Mr. Powell, a person with knowledge of the case said, but no deal has been announced.

Ms. James seeks to use her regulatory authority over nonprofit groups to impose a range of financial penalties against the defendants and to remove Mr. LaPierre; any money recovered would flow back to the N.R.A. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Tuesday before State Supreme Court Justice Joel M. Cohen. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.

A parade of revelations from recent years will be front and center. Mr. LaPierre, for instance, was a regular for more than a decade at a Zegna boutique in Beverly Hills, where he spent nearly $40,000 of N.R.A. money in a single May 2004 outing. He also billed more than $250,000 for travel to, among other places, Palm Beach, Fla., Reno, Nev., the Bahamas and Italy’s Lake Como. He has argued that these were legitimate business expenses.

During his testimony in the 2021 bankruptcy case, Mr. LaPierre said he did not know Mr. Phillips had received a $360,000-a-year consulting contract after being pushed out of the N.R.A. He also said he was unaware that his personal travel agent, hired by the N.R.A., was charging a 10 percent booking fee for charter flights on top of a retainer of up to $26,000 a month. Mr. LaPierre’s close aide, Millie Hallow, was even kept on after being caught diverting $40,000 in N.R.A. funds for her son’s wedding and other personal expenses.

The N.R.A. has said it is being persecuted by New York regulators. The group recently enlisted the support of the American Civil Liberties Union in a federal lawsuit that accuses former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his administration of misusing their authority by dissuading banks and insurers from doing business with the N.R.A. Ms. James, the group has pointed out repeatedly, vowed to investigate the N.R.A. even before she was elected.

“It’s a matter of faith among members, based on credible external evidence, that the N.R.A. was facing these adverse actions by government officials if not entirely, then in large part, because of their antipathy toward the N.R.A. and its Second Amendment advocacy,” the gun organization’s lead lawyer, William A. Brewer III, said in an interview.

He added that the organization had taken numerous steps to address its corporate practices and that the attorney general’s case relied largely on witnesses who were no longer affiliated with the N.R.A.

“This phase of the case is about tales from the crypt,” Mr. Brewer said, adding that the organization’s mentality today was that “if you made a mistake, you’re going to pay it back with interest, and if you do it again, you’re gone.”

Mr. Brewer, a Democrat, emerged as the N.R.A.’s top lawyer in 2018 after being enlisted by Mr. LaPierre to ward off New York regulators. He is viewed with extreme suspicion by the longtime N.R.A. lawyers that he supplanted, including one, J. Steven Hart, who once asked a colleague in an email: “Is Brewer a moron or a Manchurian candidate?”

Beyond Ms. James, the N.R.A.’s most formidable adversaries these days are not gun control groups, but former insiders who have been cast out of the kingdom.

Oliver North, the organization’s former president, is scheduled to be a witness. He has said Mr. Brewer’s legal bills, which exceeded $70 million over three years, “are shocking to me and many others.” Mr. North was forced out in 2020 amid a power struggle between Mr. LaPierre and Mr. Brewer on one side and the N.R.A.’s longtime advertising and public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen, which employed Mr. North, on the other.

Another former insider, Willes Lee, departed abruptly as first vice president of the N.R.A.’s board in April and was a vocal critic of the group for a time. In a Facebook post, he summed up the N.R.A.’s legal strategy as “Keep old folks who were in charge during the heinous NYAG allegations & admitted abuse. Eliminate leaders who weren’t here during the gross abuse & outrageous allegations. To the Judge, plead ‘We’ve changed’.”

With the trial approaching, tumult has continued within the organization’s leadership. Joe DeBergalis, Mr. LaPierre’s top deputy, left and was replaced by Mr. LaPierre’s longtime spokesman, Andrew Arulanandam. Phillip Journey, a former N.R.A. director turned critic who is also among the scheduled witnesses, was critical of the move.

“He’s putting malleables — what did Lenin call them, useful idiots? — in all the important spots,” he said in an interview.

Ms. James originally sought to shut the N.R.A. down entirely, as one of her predecessors succeeded in doing with the Trump Foundation, a scandal-plagued offshoot of former President Donald J. Trump’s financial empire.

That step was rejected in 2022 by Judge Cohen. More recently, the judge appears to have lost patience with the N.R.A., writing on Dec. 28 that its latest motion to dismiss the case was “belated and procedurally questionable” and expressing concern that it could interfere with the trial schedule.

Legal observers think Mr. LaPierre will be hard pressed to convince the judge that he should keep his job, given the revelations that have surfaced.

“He won’t go down without a fight,” said Nick Suplina, a former senior adviser and special counsel at the attorney general’s office who works for the gun control advocacy group Everytown.

“Given the pervasive problems at the N.R.A.,” he added, “it is hard to imagine a judge not finding fault with the head of the organization.”

[harrybarracuda]

Oh look, spamdreth has found another thread to spam.

[S Landreth]

^Don’t you have me on ignore?

^Got nothing and upset,…………again



Trump tells Iowans to ‘get over’ recent school shooting: ‘We have to move forward’

[S Landreth]

• 'King of the NRA': Civil trial scrutinizes lavish spending by Wayne LaPierre

The longtime head of National Rifle Association operated as the “King of the NRA,” spending lavishly on himself, punishing dissent and showering allies with country club memberships and no-show contracts, a lawyer for the New York attorney general’s office told jurors Monday.

Wayne LaPierre’s methods as the NRA’s executive vice president and chief executive officer allowed him to operate the powerful gun rights organization “as Wayne’s World for decades,” Assistant Attorney General Monica Connell argued in an opening statement in a civil trial scrutinizing his leadership and spending at the nonprofit.

LaPierre, who said Friday he is leaving the NRA after leading it since 1991, watched stoically from a seat along a courtroom wall as six jurors and six alternates were seated for the trial, which is expected to take six weeks. He moved to the front of the gallery as Connell spoke, her argument augmented by a slideshow showing the NRA’s leadership structure and expenses at issue in the case.

Connell said LaPierre charged the organization more than $11 million for private jet flights over the years and authorized $135 million in NRA contracts for a vendor whose owners provided him repeated access to a 108-foot (33-meter) yacht and free trips to the Bahamas, Greece, Dubai and India.

At the same time, LaPierre, 74, consolidated power and avoided scrutiny by hiring unqualified underlings who looked the other way, routing expenses through a vendor, doctoring invoices, and retaliating against board members and executives who questioned his spending, Connell said.

In one example, Connell said, the NRA’s former chief financial officer, Craig Spray, found himself unable to log into the organization’s computer system after he objected to LaPierre’s way of doing business. In a November 2020 email to organization brass, Spray took issue with the boss’ authoritarian rule, writing: “There are no ‘Wayne said’ approvals at the NRA.”

LaPierre kept quiet about gifts he received from vendors until the morning he testified in the NRA’s failed bankruptcy in Texas in 2021, Connell said. For years before that, she said, he’d been checking “no” on an internal disclosure form that asked if he’d received any gifts worth more than $300.

Much more in the link above

_______

• Civil fraud trial seeking independent monitor for NRA begins after CEO's resignation, official's $100K settlement

The civil fraud trial against the National Rifle Association and senior management was scheduled to begin in New York City on Monday, just days after NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre announced his resignation and another official reached a $100,000 settlement.

LaPierre remains a defendant in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, which alleges that officials diverted millions of dollars away from the NRA’s charitable mission. The NRA said LePierre resigned for health reasons.

The New York Times, CNN, ABC News, Reuters and Law360 are among the publications with coverage. Press releases are here and here.

James had alleged that LaPierre exploited the NRA for the benefit of himself and his inner circle, using donor money to pay for private jets, expensive meals and family vacations. James’ August 2020 lawsuit initially sought the dissolution of the NRA but dropped that remedy after a judge ruled that it could violate members’ First Amendment rights, according to Law360 and the Washington Post. She is now seeking an independent monitor.

_________

• Attorney General James Announces Settlement with Former NRA Senior Strategist on Eve of Trial

New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced that Joshua Powell, former National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Director of Operations and Chief of Staff to recently resigned NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, has reached a $100,000 agreement with her office. Powell was one of five defendants in the lawsuit brought by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) against the NRA and senior management in August 2020. As part of the agreement, Powell has admitted to OAG's claims of wrongdoing in its lawsuit. The trial of the claims against the NRA and the remaining defendants will begin on Monday, January 8.

“Joshua Powell’s admission of wrongdoing and Wayne LaPierre’s resignation confirm what we have alleged for years: the NRA and its senior leaders are financially corrupt,” said Attorney General James. “More than three years ago, my office sued the NRA and its senior management for financial abuse and mismanagement. These are important victories in our case, and we look forward to ensuring the NRA and the defendants face justice for their actions.”

__________

• NRA civil corruption trial underway in Manhattan

[S Landreth]

• NRA Lawyer Distances Gun Group From LaPierre’s Lavish Spending

A defense attorney for the National Rifle Association on Tuesday fought back against a civil suit by the State of New York, arguing that the actions of the N.R.A.’s leader, who spent fortunes on luxuries and travel, were not those of the organization itself.

The trial in a Manhattan courtroom comes as the nation’s most prominent gun lobby has been roiled by internal divisions, including the announced resignation last week of Wayne LaPierre, its leader for more than three decades. He was at the organization’s head as it became a powerhouse in American politics, batting back gun control efforts at the local and federal levels.

On Tuesday, a lawyer for the group, Sarah Rogers, tried in her opening statements to distance the organization from Mr. LaPierre, telling jurors that while he was a valuable leader, “he was not always a meticulous corporate executive.”

“The N.R.A. is not Wayne LaPierre,” Ms. Rogers said.

Ms. Rogers told the jury that no dollars donated to the N.R.A. were misspent, while also touting the group’s gun education and safety programs, women’s initiatives, and hunting and conservation advocacy.

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, has accused the N.R.A. — which is chartered in New York and thus subject to her jurisdiction — of corruption and misuse of funds.

Ms. James, a Democrat, brought the suit in 2020. Since then, the N.R.A. has said it is “committed to good governance” and has “accepted reimbursement, with interest, for alleged excess benefit transactions from LaPierre,” who was said to have spent heavily on high-end boutiques in Beverly Hills, Calif., as well as more than $250,000 on travel to resorts in the Bahamas and Lake Como in Italy.

On Monday, with Mr. LaPierre in attendance, a lawyer from the attorney general’s office outlined the state’s case, describing indiscriminate spending by Mr. LaPierre, including vacations on a contractor’s superyacht.

But Ms. Rogers argued that some of those expenses were legitimate or had been repaid with interest. In referring to the yacht trips, she said that they “cost the N.R.A., its members and its donors zero — nothing.”

Still, she was unsparing in her evaluation of Mr. LaPierre’s tenure, arguing that while the N.R.A. was under his control, there had been a “betrayal” of the group’s mission. “When problems surfaced, those problems were corrected,” Ms. Rogers said.

Mr. LaPierre’s own lawyer, P. Kent Correll, praised his client’s work for the organization, saying “he served it well and honorably and honestly for 44 years until his health made it impossible.”

Mr. Correll said that Ms. James wanted to paint Mr. LaPierre as “not an honest person — that he wasn’t acting honestly with sincere intention to do what he thought was in the best interest of the N.R.A.”

“They want to paint him as a person that is not him,” Mr. Correll said.

The other defendants include John Frazer, the N.R.A.’s general counsel, and Wilson Phillips, a former finance chief, as well as Joshua Powell, who had served as the organization’s second-in-command but later turned against the group.

Last week, Mr. Powell reached a $100,000 settlement with Ms. James’s office, agreeing to admit to misusing funds, according to a statement released by her office. Mr. Powell had previously called for universal background checks for gun purchases and supported so-called red flag laws that allow the courts to seize firearms from people judged dangerous to themselves or others.

On Tuesday, Ms. Rogers said that both Mr. Phillips and Mr. Powell were “long gone.” “Good riddance,” she said.

Mr. LaPierre has defended his spending, saying that there was nothing “improper about it, given the fact that I was the face of the brand.”

N.R.A. leaders have argued that New York officials are persecuting the group, part of what they describe as a concerted effort by Ms. James to attack their conservative beliefs, which include an unwavering defense of the Second Amendment.

The group also recently enlisted the support of the American Civil Liberties Union in a federal lawsuit that accuses Andrew M. Cuomo, the state’s previous governor and a supporter of gun control, of misusing his administration’s authority by dissuading banks and insurers from doing business with the N.R.A.

Once among the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States, the N.R.A. has seen its influence dip amid a steep drop in membership; according to its internal audits, revenue is down more than 40 percent since 2016, with legal costs running into the tens of millions a year.

But on Monday, Monica Connell, a lawyer with the attorney general’s office, ardently rejected the idea that the gun group had been defanged, presenting Mr. LaPierre as “the king of the N.R.A.,” who had “corrupted and breached the N.R.A. from within.”

[helge]

the N.R.A.’s leader, who spent fortunes on luxuries and travel

Yeah well.

Him being a top lobbyist, it's hardly surprising, that the money, from the Gun Nuts of the United Militias of America, is being used on 'luxuries and travel'.


Probably have pissed off the swamp politicians, who were meant to receive the ...."benefits"

And that is ofcourse nice

[S Landreth]

• NRA’s ex-CFO testified he charged group for his Texas to Virginia commute for 3 years

Wilson “Woody” Phillips, the first defendant to testify in the civil trial against the NRA, also said he received at least $150,000 in compensation after leaving the organization.

Wilson “Woody” Phillips, the first defendant to be called to the stand in the civil trial against the National Rifle Association and its executives, testified Friday that he billed the NRA for his interstate commute after he bought a new home in Texas and that he received $30,000 a month in compensation after he left the group.

Phillips spent 25 years overseeing the gun rights group’s finances as its treasurer and chief financial officer from 1993 to 2018.

He is fending off a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2020 that alleges the NRA and two other current and former executives violated nonprofit laws and misused millions of dollars of the organization’s charitable assets for personal use.

Longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre and John Frazer, the group’s corporate secretary and general counsel, are also defendants.

Phillips, 75, lived in Virginia, where the NRA is headquartered, until 2015 when he bought property in Dallas and began spending about 60% of his time there. He testified that the NRA reimbursed him for that commute and for hotels for three years and that he did not tell the group’s compensation committee about those expenses.

As part of his compensation contract with the NRA, Phillips said he received $30,000 a month for at least five months after he retired from the group.

In her line of questioning just before proceedings ended early Friday afternoon, an attorney with the AG’s office was questioning Phillips about contracts awarded to a former girlfriend that he was not disclosing.

LaPierre is accused of diverting millions of dollars away from the NRA to spend on “lavish perks” for himself, including personal use of private jets, expensive meals, travel consultants, private security and trips to the Bahamas for him and his family.

The other defendants allegedly “went along with this,” Monica Connell, an attorney with the AG’s office, said during her opening arguments Monday.

Connell claimed Phillips violated numerous state laws and failed to take action against LaPierre, ultimately helping his boss maintain his power. She said LaPierre hired Phillips without a vetting process, despite Phillips having no prior experience as CFO or treasurer.

Phillips testified that he did not have LaPierre’s contract extension agreement approved by the NRA’s audit committee and that he did not do a separate assessment of it. The agreement stipulated that LaPierre would be paid $1.3 million for 2019 and even more in the following years.

In his opening arguments, Phillips’ attorney, Seth Farber, told the jury he would prove that his client never used his position to “line his own pocket” or conceal information from the NRA’s board of directors.

Farber said Phillips did not do his job perfectly, but that he “never intentionally did anything to harm the NRA.”

Phillips was on the stand for a little over an hour Friday. His testimony will continue next week.

His remarks concluded the first week of the trial, which is expected to last for more than a month.

The plaintiffs have also called former NRA board members Roscoe “Rocky” Marshall and Esther Schneider; nonprofit expert Jeffrey Tenenbaum; Michael Erstling, the NRA's director of budget and financial analysis; and Rick Tedrick, who works with the NRA’s financial services division. Tedrick testified by audio deposition.

The 12-member Manhattan jury is expected to hear from roughly 120 witnesses. Six of the jurors will be chosen to deliberate, while the others will serve as alternates.

[S Landreth]

• At NRA civil trial, ex-finance chief questioned about Oliver North contract

Internal turmoil that plagued the National Rifle Association five years ago resurfaced Tuesday during testimony at a civil corruption trial in New York, when the gun rights group's former chief financial officer was asked about a contract agreement for then-NRA president Oliver North.

Wilson "Woody" Phillips, the chief steward of the NRA's finances from 1993 to 2018, said during his second day of testimony that he was aware that North in 2018 was entering into a contract with Ackerman McQueen, the group's longtime advertising firm. And while the firm then sought reimbursement from the NRA for paying North more than $1 million a year, Phillips testified that he didn't bring the contract to the attention of the nonprofit group's audit committee.

The contract, which involved North working as a host for an NRATV web series, was notable because the position of NRA president is typically unpaid and considered ceremonial.

North, a retired U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel who was at the center of the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal, would step down as president in April 2019, less than a year after accepting the job. His departure from the organization came amid reports that he was battling with Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's chief executive officer, over alleged financial impropriety with the organization's spending and that he threatened to leak damaging information about LaPierre if he did not resign as CEO.

North was once the co-host of the now-canceled MSNBC political talk show “Equal Time” from 1999 to 2000. MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.

LaPierre would appear to have won the feud with North by maintaining his power, but in the wake, scrutiny grew as New York Attorney General Letitia James brought a lawsuit in 2020 alleging LaPierre, Phillips and two other NRA executives violated nonprofit laws and misused millions of dollars of NRA funds for their personal benefit. John Frazer, the NRA's corporate secretary and general counsel, is another defendant in the civil trial.

Just days before the trial opened on Jan. 8, a fourth defendant — Joshua Powell, a former chief of staff and executive director of general operations — agreed to settle with James' office and pay $100,000 in restitution to the NRA. He is still expected to testify.

Before the trial began, LaPierre, 74, announced he would resign at the end of this month from the group he has helmed for more than three decades.

He is accused of diverting millions of dollars away from the NRA to spend on "lavish perks" for himself, including personal use of private jets, expensive meals, travel consultants, private security and trips to the Bahamas for him and his family.

The New York Attorney General's Office contends that Phillips engaged in practices that violated NRA policies and failed to assert his fiduciary duty and question conflicts of interest involving various vendors and NRA executives, including himself.

None of the defendants have been criminally charged as part of James' lawsuit. The NRA has operated as a nonprofit charitable corporation in New York since 1871, and James is seeking financial penalties from the defendants and to bar them from leading any nonprofit group conducting business in New York. James initially sought to have the NRA completely dissolved, but a judge disagreed.

Phillips, 75, had faced repeated lines of questioning from a lawyer with the attorney general's office over his actions as CFO and treasurer under the direction of LaPierre.

On Tuesday, he was asked about a $70,000 check that the NRA sent in May 2018 to an entity that was reportedly set up by an Ackerman McQueen lawyer to help LaPierre buy a $6 million mansion in Dallas. The deal did not move forward, but the check became part of the attorney general office's probe into the NRA's tangled finances, The Wall Street Journal first reported in 2019.

Phillips also noted that he had done annual audits with Ackerman McQueen, but the firm held those records and they were not kept at the NRA headquarters in Virginia because they contained sensitive information that not all employees were privy to.

"You didn't want them to see things that might make headlines," an AG office's lawyer asked.

"That is correct," Phillips responded.

In testimony last week, Phillips said the NRA reimbursed him for his commutes between Dallas, where he had moved to, and Virginia and for hotels for three years, and that he did not tell the NRA's compensation committee about those expenses.

A lawyer with the attorney general's office also questioned Phillips about contracts awarded to a former girlfriend that he had not disclosed.

On Tuesday afternoon, Phillips faced cross-examination from lawyers for the other defendants as well as his own. He agreed with his lawyer that he trusted outside auditors to help review the group's finances and that "if you see something, you say something."

Cross-examination was expected to resume on Wednesday.

Amid the fallout from the NRA's faltering financial picture, the group's membership has fallen in recent years and leaders have pulled back on spending on longtime programs to improve its budget deficits.

[S Landreth]

• Former NRA lobbyist ‘disgusted’ by Wayne LaPierre’s spending habits

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.

[S Landreth]

• Former gun group president says whistleblowers wanted to ‘destroy the NRA’

Whistleblowers questioning the errant spending of National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre were trying to “destroy the NRA,” according to one of the group’s former presidents.

Carolyn Meadows, a longtime National Rifle Association board member and president from 2019 to 2021, is one of LaPierre’s most fervent allies at the nonprofit. In an email shown to the court last week, a peer called her one of LaPierre’s “go-to storm troopers.”

Now, Meadows says she's suffering from severe health issues. She couldn’t make the trip from Georgia to New York City to testify in the state attorney general’s case against LaPierre and the NRA, so state attorneys instead played video from her deposition to the courtroom on Monday.

In the hourslong clip, Meadows made clear her deference to LaPierre. She called him the “best CEO” she’s ever worked with and testified that she questioned the loyalty of some of his biggest detractors.

Among those detractors was Sean Maloney, a former board member who claimed that Meadows removed him from his committee assignments after Maloney took issue with LaPierre’s spending habits.

“He sided with other board members who favored the reorganization and destroying the NRA as it exists,” Meadows said of Maloney during the deposition. “I had the authority to appoint or not. In my mind, those were disqualifications.”

Meadows claimed that Maloney, along with other board members, pushed “wrong accusations” about LaPierre.

“He said that he mismanaged, that he stole money,” Meadows said. “He was very vocal in the press.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James is accusing LaPierre of doing just that. In her 169-page civil complaint, James claims LaPierre diverted “millions of dollars away from the charitable mission” of the NRA, using the group’s donor dollars to fund family vacations and other personal expenses.

She also accuses NRA leadership of trying to cover up complaints from whistleblowers like Maloney, who wanted the nonprofit to investigate those allegations. Instead, they claim, the organization retaliated against them for raising concerns. Maloney resigned in 2019 as a result.

Fellow board member Esther Schneider resigned alongside him after she was also stripped of her committee assignments. Schneider, too, raised issue with LaPierre’s spending, and testified earlier this month that she “was retaliated against for asking questions.”

But Meadows claimed that she stopped giving Schneider committee assignments because of personal issues. Meadows said that Schneider shouted profanity at her during an NRA dinner, an incident that stemmed from her unhappiness with Meadows’ leadership.

“She is an ill-tempered woman,” Meadows said. “In my early support of her for the board, if I could rescind it, I would now do it… I have a very poor opinion of her.”

Meadows has repeatedly refuted the claims from those NRA whistleblowers. When the attorney general filed her complaint against the nonprofit in 2020, Meadows called the lawsuit a “baseless, premeditated attack.”

But in her deposition, Meadows admitted that she “shredded” and “burned” some of her notes when the attorney general’s investigation began.

“You were told that your notes could be subpoenaed and used, correct?” a state lawyer asked Meadows on the tape.

“Correct,” Meadows replied, claiming that NRA’s general counsel John Frazer — a defendant in this case — told her so.

“Following that info from Mr. Frazer, you shredded and burned your notes, yes?” Meadows was asked.

“A portion of notes, yes,” she said.

Meadows claimed she torched three legal pads because they contained information about her now-late husband’s medical condition, which she wanted to keep confidential. She said some notes about the NRA were certainly mixed in, however, as separating them would have been “impossible.”

While she is still a member of the NRA board, Meadows is no longer the group’s president. That title now belongs to Charles Cotton, an attorney and gun rights activist who chaired the NRA’s audit committee. He was elected NRA president in 2021, and was twice reelected since, making him the first NRA president to serve three terms.

Cotton took the stand Monday afternoon after the conclusion of Meadows’ taped deposition. He’ll return on Tuesday to complete his testimony.

James’ case against the NRA, LaPierre and other former executives went to trial earlier this month. The jury trial is expected to last for approximately six weeks. After which, Judge Joel Cohen could oversee a bench trial to determine damages.

[harrybarracuda]

Another thread fucked by spamdreth.

[S Landreth]

^.....

^Don’t you have me on ignore?

^Got nothing and upset,…………again



Trump tells Iowans to ‘get over’ recent school shooting: ‘We have to move forward’

[S Landreth]

• Oliver North says NRA reacted to misconduct allegations like a '''circular firing squad'

Oliver North testified Tuesday that he was forced out of the National Rifle Association after raising allegations of financial irregularities within the powerful lobbying organization, likening the group’s reaction to that of a “circular firing squad.”

North, 80, said he was pushed out as president of the NRA after seeking an independent review of some unusual expenses, including an “astronomical” sum that he said was spent on lawyers by the longtime chief executive, Wayne LaPierre.

LaPierre remarked that the lawyers are “the only reason I’m not going to spend the rest of my life in an orange jumpsuit,” North told jurors in a Manhattan courtroom.

Best known for his central role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, North served as president of the NRA for less than a year before resigning in 2019 amid a bitter dispute with LaPierre, his one-time friend.

He was called to testify in the third week of the civil corruption trial focused on whether LaPierre treated himself to millions of dollars in private jet flights, yacht trips, African safaris and other extravagant perks at the expense of the gun rights group.

The case was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James under her authority to investigate nonprofits registered in the state. On the eve of the trial, LaPierre, 74, announced he would resign from his position by the end of the month.

LaPierre sat in the front row of the courtroom Tuesday, scribbling notes in a yellow legal pad as North described how he and his allies tried to understand how the organization was churning through its budget so quickly.

“We wanted to bring a reputable, outside independent audit,” he said. “We’re trying to make the NRA survive.”

The internal conflict spilled into the public view during the group’s April 2019 annual convention after LaPierre accused North of seeking to oust him by threatening to release “damaging” information to the NRA’s board.

The stand-off followed a rift between LaPierre and the NRA’s longtime public relations firm, Ackerman McQueen, which paid North a $1 million salary. While North has faced allegations of a conflict of interest from some within the NRA, he maintained that the arrangement was approved at the highest levels.

“Wayne LaPierre helped me draft that agreement,” North said. “Wayne LaPierre is the one who told me: ‘I’ll take care of it.’”

During the cross-examination, North emphatically denied trying to remove LaPierre from power for his own personal gain.

“I never initiated a coup or a replacement or any of that garbage,” he said. “I did try to tell Wayne that there is going to be a lot of bad stuff coming out.”

James is seeking financial penalties from LaPierre as well as Wilson Phillips, the NRA’s former finance chief, and John Frazer, the group’s general counsel. She is also seeking to bar LaPierre from holding any positions with the group in the future.

LaPierre has defended himself in the past, testifying in another proceeding that his yacht trips were a “security retreat” because he was facing threats after mass shootings. The other defendants, Frazer and Phillips, have also denied wrongdoing.

Another ex-NRA executive-turned whistleblower, Joshua Powell, settled with James’ office earlier this month. He has agreed to testify at the trial, pay the NRA $100,000 and forgo further nonprofit involvement.

North was a military aide to the National Security Council during President Ronald Reagan’s administration in the 1980s. His role in arranging the secret sale of weapons to Iran and the diversion of the proceeds to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua put him in the spotlight.

He was convicted in 1989 of obstructing Congress during its investigation, destroying government documents and accepting an illegal gratuity. Those convictions were overturned in 1991. North was embraced by many on the right, and the retired Marine lieutenant colonel went on to run for office, write several books and serve as a commentator on Fox News.

[S Landreth]

• Ex-NRA exec claims $70,000 mansion check was for safety of CEO Wayne LaPierre

Safety is a top priority for Wayne LaPierre, the soon-to-be-retired CEO of the National Rifle Association. According to his defense team, it’s the reason he had to fly private on chartered jets instead of public airliners.

It’s also the reason the NRA was helping him procure a $6.5 million Texas mansion in 2018.

“There’d been a number of threats on Wayne LaPierre’s life,” ex-NRA finance chief Wilson “Woody” Phillips told a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday. “He traveled a lot, he needed a safe place.”

That “safe place” was a 10,000-square-foot home in the Dallas suburb of Westlake, and one of the many personal goods and services LaPierre is accused of using the NRA’s donor funds to help purchase.

According to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sued LaPierre, Phillips and the NRA in 2020, the NRA wrote a $70,000 check to help LaPierre buy the home in May 2018.

Phillips confirmed as much on the witness stand Wednesday. He explained that the check was from the NRA to WBB Investments, an LLC set up by Phillips and the NRA advertising firm at the time, Ackerman McQueen, to help LaPierre quietly finance the house.

That $70,000 check apparently caused quite a tiff in the NRA’s finance office.

State lawyers this week showed the court messages between Phillips and his then-peer Craig Spray, who was assessing the fallout once other NRA employees caught wind of the check.

“A lot of pushback from the team,” Spray said in a message to Phillips. “I’m muscling it through but we should probably discuss.”

“Wait till they get the big check request,” Phillips joked, suggesting a bigger payment to come.

Despite that message, Phillips testified Wednesday that he never truly expected the deal to go through on the NRA’s dime; that would have required 100% approval from the NRA board.

“I repeatedly said this can’t happen without full board approval,” Phillips clarified.

“But you didn't take any steps to try and get full board approval,” state attorney Monica Connell shot back.

“This was all in the context of one to two days,” Phillips said, before conceding that he never did try to get board approval.

Attorney General James says the NRA agreed to pump $6.5 million into WBB Investments — approximately the same amount that LaPierre’s prospective mansion was worth. Still, Phillips doubled down in his claim that it was never his plan to have the nonprofit’s funds pay for the house.

He said Wednesday that he'd hoped “we could find a donor or something,” and the $70,000 payment was intended "to keep the purchase potentially in place."

The deal ultimately did fall through, and the payment was returned to the NRA, Phillips claimed. But the debacle caused panic within the NRA’s finance team, according to one of Spray’s messages.

“Rick and Sonya are freaking out,” Spray said at the time, referring to Sonya Rowling, a former NRA whistleblower who now serves as the group’s finance chief.

Rowling took the stand after Phillips on Wednesday, and told the court that she was discussing leaving the NRA due to its errant spending around the time of the mansion check. But in 2021, she was promoted to the position of acting CFO. Her salary more than doubled and she decided to stick around.

Unlike Phillips, Rowling isn’t a defendant in this case. She was far more candid when questioned about the root of the NRA’s past spending issues.

Rowling testified that there were certain "untouchable" vendors, whose invoices were almost always approved by the NRA’s finance team without much or any consideration. In a text message shown to the court, she applied the term to Ackerman McQueen, the advertising firm that was supposed to help LaPierre nab the mansion.

“Everyone knows where the spending problem is,” Rowling wrote. “But that is untouchable and the real reason behind the need for control.”

According to the attorney general’s complaint, Ackerman McQueen was the vehicle in which LaPierre and other NRA executives used donor money for personal expenses. James claims that between 2013 and 2018, the firm would pay for services like LaPierre’s travel, for example, then bill the NRA that amount.

Ackerman McQueen was the NRA’s largest vendor from 1992 to 2018. The NRA reported paying the firm $20.3 million in 2017 and $31.9 million in 2018 for “public relations and advertising” services, according to James’ complaint.

The groups eventually had a falling out in 2019, resulting in a nasty legal battle that cost the NRA a hefty $12 million in settlement funds. Ackerman McQueen has since been cooperating with the attorney general’s office in its case against the NRA, in which it accuses LaPierre of using the nonprofit as his “personal piggy bank.”