by I received an email out of the blue yesterday evening from a supposed NRA staff member based in Fairfax. The email was sent to “undisclosed recipients”. I know one of the recipients was Jeff Knox as he had received the same email and was suspicious about it. The email alleges that private jets are still in use by NRA leaders including Charles Cotton and Randy Kozuch.
Here is the email in its entirety:
nraexposed <nraexposed@proton.me> Thu, May 2, 8:01 PM (15 hours ago) to I am a current staff member of NRA based in Fairfax. NRA President Charles Cotton frequently flies on Bill Brewer’s private jet (I don’t know if the jet is owned or chartered). Despite ILA Chief of Operations John Commerford testifying under oath that no one at ILA has flown private since Chris Cox left, this is not true, maybe he was covering for his boss Randy Kozuch, who has flown private dozens of times since Chris Cox left.
Now the question is why Jeff, I, and presumably others are getting such an email on the same day that the results of the 2024 NRA Board election are released and that reformers took three of the top five spots. Moreover, it is from a Proton Mail account in Switzerland which promises “end-to-end encryption and zero-access encryption.”
While the accusation could be true, so what? If the NRA is not charged for any of these flights do we really care if Charles Cotton flies on Brewer’s supposed jet? A check of the FAA records does not find any aircraft owned by William Brewer III. And what is the purpose of trying to implicate Randy Kozuch who seems a decent enough guy in improprieties?
What makes me really suspicious that this is some sort of false flag or disinformation campaign is what happened when I responded to the email suggesting if this really was the case then they ought to contact the NYAG’s Office.
I got this:
Address not found
Your message wasn’t delivered to nraexposed@proton.me because the address couldn’t be found, or is unable to receive mail.The response from the remote server was:
550 5.1.1 : Recipient address rejected: Account recently deleted
The KGB was famous for running false flag operations in order to sow confusion.
What a better time to bait the reformers into making false claims than after they’ve just been elected. I don’t know who is behind this but that seems to be their aim in my opinion.
As I said earlier this week, if you are going to levy criticisms against the existing Board and its leaders, you better have documentation to back it up. An email coming in out of the blue like this making serious accusations is just the sort of thing that demands documentation and it is nowhere to be found.
I have heard from a reliable source with insider connections that NRA bosses are desperately trying to search out the “leakers” inside the organization. They are searching computers and phones looking for the source(s) of the leaks. His computer and phone have been searched twice, so it seems plausible the email account was opened as an outside conduit, and then closed when the owner was targeted. Put nothing past Cotton, Brewer and their cabal.
Has anyone inspected the header and routing of the email to determine if it actually came from Protonmail? It’s easy to fake the display email. If you got the email directly, don’t delete it and get an IT or other competent computer person to check this for you.
I don’t think the FAA link means much. Plenty of businesses and wealthy folks don’t outright own their own plane, but have partnerships or other leasing policies for private planes. If Brewer’s firm has a contract with a company to provide a private plane on (reasonable) demand, then casual references would still be to “Brewer’s private plane” even if the plane isn’t 100% owned by Brewer himself (or his firm).
We know that their website redesign firm flew with them on a private flight between offices – something the firm said they wanted to showcase with their brand. Here’s the video. (Someone might want to grab that in case Brewer demands they go private with it or take it down.)
And a (negative) GlassDoor staff review says: “Bill Brewer and his senior management team travel weekly to meet clients or back and forth between the Dallas and New York office via private jets…”
I’m not as quick to write off the accusation. Granted, I’m also no afraid to say that I don’t think all private jet use is bad – especially for Randy who is in charge of not just federal issues, but state as well.
While he’s not the primary on the ground lobbyist in these areas, sometimes there might be an urgent last minute need. Sometimes there might be a need to get between multiple states in a day. These are times private is likely justified. However, it shouldn’t be a shady thing and needs to be properly documented. And, because of the corruption recently uncovered, even if it was not related to professional capacity, it needs to be documented.
The big issue would be with Cotton. And given that he’s in Texas, I could definitely see him cozying up to Brewer and seeing nothing wrong with hopping in a private jet for a little travel. There’s nothing about his behavior that has indicated he has learned a damn thing during the trial or investigations that happened prior. Cotton could take his sweet time – he’s not staff. He doesn’t need the urgency and extreme flexibility of private jet travel. And if he’s gunning for EVP, it gets to be a much bigger problem in light of the previous corruption of the office whether the travel is personal or business.
So I wouldn’t be completely dismissive of it. I have nothing to support that it’s true, either. However, I do believe there is enough online evidence to support the argument that Brewer appears to have direct and regular access to a private plane in some capacity.
And deleting the email quickly? Like the commenter above, I wouldn’t blame someone who might be canned as a leaker for setting something up and quickly deleting. I expect we’ll see more extreme measures taken against staff, the reformers, and anyone who might be a risk to the Brewer grift. More searches, feeding different versions of communications (as you noted before), and at some point probably feeding specifically false information to suspects. I don’t think we’ve seen the most unethical of actions yet.
The only issue with Cotton is using an NRA vendor’s services for personal use, a clear conflict of interest. Perhaps that is the point of the original email. If Cotton is accepting flights from Brewer while maintaining his lucrative contract, that is the same as WLP using a vendor’s yacht for a vacation. I’d like to know more about this accusation.
Evidence will start being released regarding corruption at the NRA Whittington Center with the hope it is publicized.