NY AG Wants Judge To Dismiss NRA Backruptcy

AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File

The National Rifle Association is besieged. For one thing, they’ve got New York state Attorney General Letitia James trying to basically unmake them with her legal actions. Then there’s the fact that they have a hostile White House and Congress that acts like they’re the boogeyman. To top all that off, there are the financial problems that have been a serious issue for the organization and led to them filing for bankruptcy.

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2020 was not a banner year for the NRA.

Now, James is trying to make things even tougher for the group by contesting their bankruptcy filing.

The New York attorney general called for the dismissal of the National Rifle Association’s bankruptcy, alleging it was filed to escape state oversight.

The case is improper because the NRA has openly stated that the gun rights organization is “in its strongest financial condition in years,” New York said in a filing Friday in bankruptcy court in Texas. The Chapter 11 was also brought in bad faith to avoid New York’s lawsuit seeking to dissolve it, the state said.

The NRA is “essentially fleeing or seeking an end run around a pending regulatory enforcement action in New York,” the state said in the filing. The lawsuit filed last year by New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges the NRA diverted charitable donations for years to enrich the organization’s top executives in violation of laws governing nonprofits.

“The filing is another transparent move in a partisan crusade to shut down the NRA,” said William A. Brewer III, a lawyer for the NRA. He denied that the group is trying to avoid New York’s lawsuit. “As the Association has said repeatedly, it welcomes the opportunity to litigate these contrived claims and the motives which led to their filing.”

Of course, Brewer is correct.

James has a history of vilifying the NRA that predates the current legal efforts. She’s referred to them as a terrorist organization and basically bragged about her hostility toward the group. This is nothing more than an attempt to subvert the legal options available to the NRA.

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But I do agree that sure, the NRA is trying to escape the regulatory actions of New York. It doesn’t mean the bankruptcy isn’t legit, but I do think they want to hit the ejection seat on their New York incorporation, which is why they announced they were moving to Texas.

Can you blame them, though?

I mean, who the hell wants to remain in a state where you’re treated like the worst kind of evil? Between James and Governor Andrew Cuomo, state leadership has held up the NRA as all that’s wrong with the world. Can you blame them for wanting to leave a state that has the authority to prosecute them vindictively?

No, what James is really disputing isn’t the NRA’s financial state, but that the organization may slip out of her grasp. Her attempts to destroy the group are critical to her future political goals and we all know it. If she can’t destroy the group, she can’t put it in her campaign material when she runs for higher office.

That’s what this is really about.

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