The first thing you have to understand about the National Rifle Association’s troubles is that they have very little to do with guns and a whole lot to do with money.
Last Thursday, the NRA’s president, Oliver North, unexpectedly left the organization’s annual convention in Indianapolis halfway through and announced the next morning that he wouldn’t seek another term.
CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre later claimed North had tried to blackmail him into resigning; New York Attorney General Letitia James issued subpoenas as part of a long-promised probe into whether the NRA complied with Empire State nonprofit regulations; and a nine-hour closed-door meeting of the board of directors ended with LaPierre reelected, though a resolution calling for his resignation was also sent to the board’s ethics committee.
What a mess.
North and LaPierre disagree over who benefited from the NRA’s relationship with public-relations firm Ackerman McQueen. That firm has been a part of every public messaging push from the organization since the 1980s, all the way back to “I’m the NRA, and I vote.”
But in recent years, some NRA board members started wondering whether they were getting their money’s worth from Ackerman — with the NRA reportedly paying the firm just under $41 million in 2017. The NRA asked Ackerman for details about how the money was spent, didn’t get them and filed a lawsuit in mid-April demanding documentation.
LaPierre contends North has a conflict of interest in his dealings with Ackerman, as he has a contract with the firm to create a television series for NRATV called “Oliver North’s American Heroes.” LaPierre observes that only three episodes have been created in 11 months; one episode was 11 minutes long.
“The NRA wrote a recent letter demanding to know what exactly it is paying for — and what it is getting — in light of these production shortfalls,” LaPierre said in a letter to his board last month. Ackerman McQueen “did not respond directly but appears to have responded indirectly by trying to oust me.”
But North has his own account of wasteful spending, alleging that LaPierre had made more than $200,000 of wardrobe purchases and charged them to Ackerman McQueen. LaPierre said the wardrobe expenses dated back 15 years. But that still amounts to $13,333 in wardrobe expenses per year for a decade and a half.
A nonprofit whose top figures accuse each other of personally benefitting from runaway spending is fertile territory for a law-enforcement investigation.
But James might be the worst possible figure to investigate the NRA. She’s an outspoken advocate for gun control, for starters. Shortly before her election, James said in an interview: “The NRA holds [itself] out as a charitable organization, but in fact, [it] really [is] a terrorist organization.”
A wiser prosecutor in James’ position would have recused herself and handed the case to colleagues. At the NRA meeting, LaPierre already called James’ effort a “taxpayer-funded fishing expedition . . . a contrived political investigation.” She’s making his defense easier.
But just because James has a bigger ax to grind than Paul Bunyan doesn’t mean that the NRA didn’t do anything wrong. Something doesn’t smell right.
Aaron Davis, who spent a decade working in the NRA’s fundraising department, told The New Yorker: “Most [NRA] staffers think that Ackerman is too expensive. They think they’re just using the NRA to make a massive profit.”
William Brewer, the NRA’s outside lawyer, said the organization “will fully cooperate with any inquiry into its finances.” He added: “The NRA is prepared for this, and has full confidence in its accounting practices and commitment to good governance.”
The NRA may argue that it believed until recently that Ackerman McQueen was spending its money wisely and that it’s the victim of an irresponsible contractor.
Perhaps, and we don’t know if New York’s investigation will uncover a lot of wrongdoing, a little — or none. But it seems like a safe bet that James will make the investigation as extensive, thorough and expensive as possible, right around the time the organization would like to be gearing up for a tough fight in the 2020 election.
The coming months are likely to bring a festival of recriminations and a lot of tough questions about why the NRA’s leadership didn’t see this mess coming and do more to prevent it.
Jim Geraghty is National Review’s senior political correspondent.
Twitter: @JimGeraghty