Trial to decide NRA’s financial future begins in Manhattan

NEW YORK — The former board president of the National Rifle Association spent Monday on a witness stand trying to ward off an effort by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, to have an outside monitor appointed to oversee the gun group.

James, who was in the Manhattan courtroom, is seeking to give oversight of the NRA to a court-appointed official for three years, a step the group vehemently opposes. Five months ago, after an earlier phase of the civil trial, Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s longtime CEO, was found liable for misspending $5.4 million of the NRA’s money. Charles Cotton, who was NRA president until May, was the first witness as the second phase of the trial began.

New York has special jurisdiction over the NRA, which was founded in the state more than 150 years ago. James had sued in 2020 amid a corruption scandal that upended the association and led to infighting within its highest ranks; its revenue and membership have plummeted.

Cotton, in testimony Monday, conceded that the case has hampered the NRA’s ability to recruit new leaders.

“We’re not going to attract the Lee Iacoccas while this lawsuit is hanging over our head,” he said, referring to the former Chrysler executive who was a corporate icon of the 1980s.

During his testimony, an internal document was highlighted that underscored tensions within the organization.

The NRA’s audit committee, which Cotton still leads, has “reviewed and discussed” a possible lawsuit from one of the group’s most formidable former lobbyists amid a financial dispute, according to the document.

In questions put to Cotton on Monday, Steven Shiffman, a lawyer with the attorney general’s office, tried to undercut the NRA’s assertions that it had reformed its governance. He pointed out that the NRA has not repudiated LaPierre, who stepped down on the eve of the trial’s first phase. Cotton conceded that the NRA had never recommended that LaPierre be terminated or suspended, adding that they instead had been “keeping a lot closer watch on him.”

Shiffman also highlighted recent statements from Cotton to fellow NRA board members that appeared to misrepresent what has already happened in the trial, including a comment at a recent conference that the NRA “won” the first phase “much to the chagrin of the AG.”

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