NY Vs NRA: LaPierre Testimony Continues

(We’ll update this as more info becomes available). NBC reports that LaPierre testified today that he’d approved $16,000 to hire helicopters to fly NRA officials to NASCAR races, and avoid the traffic. One $7,500 flight carried only one person. LaPierre also documented a $19,000 leased jet trip to the Bahamas, and his $274,000 in clothing.

According to the AP, the questioning got into his relationship with David McKenzie, whose companies did millions in business with NRA. McKenzie took the LaPierres on free world tours and Caribbean vacations on his yacht, and at one point NRA paid him $1.8 million as house rental, in addition to the millions it was paying his companies.

Here’s the New York Times summary (behind a paywall). It notes that the NRA attorney questioned LaPierre, and he repeatedly admitted that he had done things wrongly. “One family trip to the Bahamas cost the NRA nearly $38,000.” He also said that he’d removed Josh Powell, but had to concede that Powell got a promotion and a raise, then said he had no idea how he got the raise.

“He also said he often did not know what was happening in the organization below him. He said he had not known who authorized some charter flights, or that a top official had received a seven-figure payment from a contractor that the official had managed. Mr. LaPierre also retained a close aide even after discovering that she stole tens of thousands of dollars.”

We wonder how the board feels now? For nearly five years they’ve re-elected him, defended him, purged anyone who so much as thought he might’ve done wrong. The board watched their 150+ year old organization turn into a dumpster fire as a result. Now, LaPierre himself is telling us it was all true.

A modest proposal: the board should pass a resolution apologizing to everyone they purged (officers, heads of ILA and GO, directors, the attorney for the board, etc.) and the Nominating Committee should nominate any who are willing to run again. Everything they were saying has turned out to be true.

Update: Here’s the transcript. LaPierre is testifying:

2222-2223: Millie Hallow stole (his word) $41,000 from NRA. Yet she was not fired, and kept her same salary (about $250,000). Her agreeing to repay it was enough.

2326-on: NRA paid for a helicopter service to fly himself and other NRA officials to NASCAR races. Among its passengers was Tony Makris and the niece’s husband. On another occasion, Kayne Robinson, then head of General Operations.

2333-on: His wife stayed on McKenzie’s yacht in May 2015, and in June 2015 McKenzie’s companies got a boost of $100,000 per month. “I don’t believe they had anything to do with each other.”

2336-on: Receipts for leased private jets, paid by NRA. Flights to the Bahamas. In 2016, a week’s vacation on McKenzie’s yacht, and again McKenzie’s firms then got a $100,000/month raise.

2340-on: NRA paid Mike Marcelin $2.5 million after he resigned, and then a million more was paid to him by an NRA vendor. Marcelin had managed NRA’s contract with the vendor.

2346: Invoice for private jet flight for Tony Makris, cost to NRA over $35,000. LaPierre says he doesn’t recall authorizing this.

2347-on: billing for meals at Landini’s restaurant, meals with Tony Makris. One bill was for over $2,000, another over $1,000.

2350-on: His clothing expenses. $247,000, at a high-end Beverly Hills shop.

2355-on: billings for makeup services for his wife. One invoice runs over $10,000.

2366: Purchase of the Dallas mansion for him. He and his wife visited it a couple of times. (Note his story had been that Ackerman McQueen set it up without his knowledge).

2383: He cannot recall a single case in 10 years where the Nominating Committee nominated anyone whose choice he disagreed with.

2387-on: He hired John Frazer as General Counsel despite no relevant legal experience. As far as his statement that he wouldn’t have hired Frazier to handle a parking ticket, “that’s been taken way out of context,” he just meant he was a details-guy.

2390-on: he fired treasurer Craig Spray in a conference call, not long after giving him a big bonus.

2396: His letting a private leased jet pick up people when he was was not one of them violated board policy.

2418: NRA’s filing for bankruptcy.