This week a New York appellate court upheld a $4.3 million judgment against former NRA CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, agreeing with lower courts that LaPierre needs to replay that money (plus interest) to the group he helmed for decades.
I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have that kind of money laying around. Maybe LaPierre does, but if he needs access to some additional funds (or perhaps even a steady paycheck), some of his old friends may soon be in a position to help him out.
We've been covering the ongoing litigation between the NRA and the NRA Foundation for months now. The Cliff's Notes version is that NRA is suing the NRA Foundation over a variety of issues, with the biggest being the allegation that the Foundation is trying to starve the NRA of cash by withholding grant money. The Foundation claims that its exercising its independence, but hasn't cut off the NRA completely and is willing to continue funding legitimate programs that fall within the Foundation's mission. For the latest on the legal back-and-forth I suggest reading this piece by Bearing Arms contributor John Petrolino.
This week the NRA Foundation announced its no longer the NRA Foundation at all. Instead, it's rebranded itself the 1791 Foundation, an entity wholly independent of the NRA. This may have been done in an attempt to moot the NRA's complaints that the NRA Foundation is misusing the NRA name to raise funds, but if the courts agree that the NRA Foundation/1791 Foundation does indeed have no ties to the National Rifle Association, despite having hundreds of millions of dollars in its coffers that were taken in by the NRA Foundation, then there's nothing stopping the 1791 Foundation from hiring Wayne LaPierre directly or giving him as much money as the Board of Trustees wants for work as an outside contractor.
LaPierre doesn't just have to return the $4.3 million the courts have held he improperly took from the NRA. He's also barred for ten years from serving as a paid employee of the National Rifle Association or any group directly related to it. It would be a lot easier to argue that LaPierre isn't violating that edict if he's an employee of something called the 1791 Foundation and not something called the NRA Foundation, and if the federal courts side with the NRA/1791 Foundation over the National Rifle Association in the ongoing legal fight, there probably wouldn't be much of an argument to be made at all.
To be clear, to the best of my knowledge the 1791 Foundation has not made any move to put LaPierre on the payroll. I've reached out to the Foundation to invite board president Tom King and/or executive director Peter Churchbourne to join me on Bearing Arms' Cam & Company to discuss the name change and the future of the Foundation, and one of the first questions I will ask if they respond (to date, I've heard nothing back from my invitation) is if the Foundation would hire LaPierre, either as an employee or outside contractor.
The Foundation's board has several former NRA board members who were considered part of the "old guard" that were LaPierre's biggest defenders during the New York Attorney General's investigation into the NRA and her attempts to dissolve the organization. The National Rifle Association has alleged in its lawsuit against the Foundation that the "old guard" essentially engaged in a hostile takeover of the Foundation and its finances, which are far more secure (and plentiful) than the NRA itself. Given the LaPierre supporters on the Foundation board of trustees and the recent move to publicly de-link the Foundation from the NRA, I think it's fair to ask whether the Foundation believes LaPierre could benefit the group in a way that would be deserving of financial compensation.
When the Foundation announced its name change, it declared that "[a]s part of the transition, the Foundation is also positioning itself to operate with greater independence, leaner overhead, and enhanced operational efficiency through its own dedicated staff and infrastructure."
Greater transparency would be nice too, and not just about any future plans regarding Wayne LaPierre. How are trustees to the Foundation selected? How long do they serve? What voice do donors have, if any, in the governance of the Foundation? Those are just a few of the questions I'd like to pose to King and Churchbourne if they agree to a sit down. The Foundation's existing assets are large enough to make it a major player in the 2A community if trustees choose, but just like the NRA's post-LaPierre leadership, the Foundation also needs to earn the trust of the 2A community if its to succeed in its mission.
