NRA must reform, increase transparency, New York judge rules

The final stage of a yearslong battle between New York State Attorney General Letitia James and the National Rifle Association concluded Wednesday, with a New York judge ordering the gun rights group to fundamentally reform its governance practices to comply with state regulations.

The order requires the NRA to alter how its conducts board elections to increase transparency and to prohibit anyone who served on its audit committee between 2014 to 2022 from continuing to serve on the panel. Future members, the court said, must be selected by the NRA's full board.

State Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen also ordered the NRA to issue an annual compliance report detailing travel expenses and contracts for each of the next five years; to provide online access to board documents, regulatory filings and legal rulings; and to hire an outside consultant to work with its chief compliance officer.

"For decades, the NRA let self-interested and self-dealing insiders run the organization with complete disregard for the rule of law," James said in a statement. "As a result of my office’s efforts to stop corruption at the NRA, the NRA has been forced to clean house."

In a statement, the NRA fashioned Wednesday's order as a win for the group, arguing that James had been unsuccessful in dissolving the association or obtaining a court-appointed monitor to oversee the organization.

"The NYAG sought to shut us down, and then appoint outsiders to oversee management of this historic organization," NRA President Bob Barr said. "Fortunately for freedom lovers everywhere, this politically-motivated attempt failed."

The statement said many of the measures ordered by Cohen were proposed by the NRA itself and are already underway.

"With Judge Cohen’s ruling, we can now put this challenging chapter in NRA history behind us and focus solely on the business of the members and all law-abiding gun owners," NRA CEO and Executive Vice President Doug Hamlin said.

In February, a Manhattan jury, during the first phase of the civil trial, found Wayne LaPierre, the former head of the NRA, and another deputy liable for misspending millions of dollars on lavish trips and other personal expenses.

The jury ordered LaPierre to repay almost $4.4 million, while the NRA’s retired finance chief, Wilson "Woody" Phillips, was ordered to pay back $2 million.

In July, during the second phase of the trial, which was done without a jury, Cohen banned LaPierre from holding a paid position with the organization for a decade, but declined to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the gun rights group. 

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.