Steve Gutowski has the story at The Reload, and here’s the official NRA tweet. (The comments are very amusing: ““LaPierre will assume both salaries during the interim, because his yacht needs to repair the helipad.”).
Officially, he is leaving to “pursue other opportunities” as a lobbyist.
He was the most intelligent of the high-level staff, and probably realized it was time to take to the lifeboats before the ship went down. Will the board take note? Probably not. The ship is foundering, and the executive officer just got into a lifeboat. The rest of the crew is surely looking for lifeboats, too.
There’s also a financial angle. As we’ve reported before, the ILA budget is shrinking, and LaPierre has been transferring millions from ILA to NRA. It’s rumored that LaPierre ordered ILA finances merged with those of NRA. ILA had kept its accounts separate from NRA from its creation in 1977, because the bylaws say it must be supported only by donations, not by member dues and other NRA revenue. Oimet may have been seeing ILA’s budget shrinking and its funds being siphoned away, and decided to get out.
It was probably sudden; the tweet mentions they don’t have an interim successor named yet.
NRA in Danger 
Thanks for the updates. Wayne is a reprehensible thief and not part of the gun tribe. How long will some people keep their eyes closed. I threw away my mail in ballot.
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I havn’t voted for a few years now.
For the good of the NRA, the corporation should be dissolved now, debts paid, and the guilty punished. If ressurecting the NRA in a new form makes sense so be it. The safety, training, and certifications programs are certainly worth keeping. Otherwise bury it, and let others more capable and trustworthy carry on the mission of protecting the 2nd Amendment and lobbying. Aside from a malfeasant leadership I think the NRA lost its way by its marketing schemes, wine clubs, hearing aids, and insurance programs.
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You had that opportunity but the window is closing it is all so tragic. The consequences of this will reverberate for decades. Republicans should feel their feet of clay dissipating. No Orange postcards, no GOTV, no magazine with candidate grades, no phone banks and no lists. Nada It means 7 -12 percent, the winning margin evaporates. Gutowski is correct, no one else has the capacity or the infrastructure to step in. Current alternatives have failed to take advantage of NRA’s trouble and assimilate members leaving NRA at over 1,000 a day. Indianapolis may be the last Member’s Meeting see you there.
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Thank you for another update. I hope, we can salvage what’s left of the NRA. Or not, I don’t know bankruptcy law in NY. Maybe all must be liquidated and divvied to applicable injured parties, and so the institution and it’s departments must be rebuilt somewhere else?
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LaPierre doesn’t need 2 Damn Salaries! He needs a Flogging, Keel Hauling! Every one of them Involved in this need to be Held Accountable, sent to Prison!
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Jason Oimet was not a novice employee of NRA. When he finally became an officer he undoubtedly saw what only an insider is able to see. Objective reality demonstrated that the board and officers were irreparably harming NRA. Oimet demonstrated wisdom when he departed the sinking ship NRA.
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