NRA moved to seal (keep secret) three classes of documents. The court shot down two of the requests, and for the third, which sought to seal certain AMEX documents, allowed only redaction of the names of non-party individuals mentioned in the documents. The judge points out that court proceedings are public proceedings, sealing documents requires proving a compelling need, and NRA never showed that.
One of the documents is an analysis by Forensic Risk Alliance of Ackerman McQueen’s situation. FRA was hired by NRA to look over the Ackerman account. In the lawsuit between Ackerman and NRA, NRA also tried to keep the report secret, and mostly lost. Another of the documents NRA’s attorneys tried to keep secret is the NRA whistleblowers’ “top concerns” memo, which has long been available on the internet.
Moving to keep secret a document that’s already been found to be non-secret, and another document that anyone can Google and read? We can’t see the purpose of this set of motions, other than enhancing the billings of NRA’s attorneys.
NRA in Danger 
ANn bets on when legal fees hit 50% of Revenue?
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NRA is the client. Therefore, NRA has a right to make final litigation decisions. In addition, NRA has a duty to manage outside counsel so that the interests of NRA are protected. NRA supposedly has an Office of General Counsel, a Special Litigation Committee, and a Legal Affairs Committee. Who at NRA is responsible for making litigation decisions and responsible for managing outside counsel? I fear that the answer is either no one or a nincompoop.
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NRA’s General Counsel is John Frazer — one of the named defendants in the NY Suit, along with LaPierre, former Treasurer Woody Phillips, and Josh Powell, LaPierre’s former deputy. None of them is supposed to have any input in anything involving the NY AG’s suit against the Association.
The Legal Affairs Committee of the Board was cut out of anything to do with the NY and DC AG’s suits, and anything in any way related to them — which has become a very broad category, basically encompassing anything being handled by the Brewer firm. Now that Brewer is getting involved in 2A litigation, I have to wonder whether the Legal Affairs Committee is being cut out of that too.
The Special Litigation Committee was created specifically to cut the Legal Affairs Committee out of the loop. The SL Committee is comprised of only the officers of the Board: President Charles Cotton, First Vice President Bob Barr, and Second Vice President David Coy — all dedicated LaPierre loyalists.
Willes Lee was First Vice President, but was passed-over in the last election of officers when the Board passed a last-minute Bylaw amendment allowing Cotton to serve a third term as President, and the Nominating Committee nominated Barr for the First VP chair. Lee had apparently challenged some of the decisions of the SLC, and had resigned from that committee before he was unceremoniously dumped. He has been posting cryptic notes about the committee’s activities since, but refuses to actually come out and tell NRA members what’s really going on.
By the way, the last time I looked, LaPierre was being represented in the NY suit by a former Brewer associate. Frazer probably is too.
Also worth noting, Cotton and/or Coy have been Chair and/or Vice Chair of the Audit Committee for the past 20 years or more, and both stated in sworn statements that they gave LaPierre broad discretion because they trust him… Cotton is an attorney. Coy is a CPA.
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“We can’t see the purpose of this set of motions, other than enhancing the billings of NRA’s attorneys.”
If someone told me hiring the Brewer Law Firm was part of a plot to drive the NRA into insolvency, I’d believe them at this point. After all, if our enemies were in charge, what would they do differently?
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Anybody else seeing the pattern here? Losing the Summary Judgement motions, not being able to hide the truth from the world and the Board. I watch the entire Bankruptcy trial. The “expert” reports are a summary of that evidence. All of that and more will be rehashed ad infinitum. Weeks of daily revelations splashed across the news. These disclosures will hurt the entire movement and likely damage the reputation of them like NRA’s. There is no recovery plan, just save Wayne.
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