by I am not in New York City for the NRA trial. Given the law in New York forbids any audio-visual broadcast of trials, I will have to rely on reports from the mainstream media and other observers such as Jim Shepherd of the Outdoor Wires.
Monica Connell, Assistant Attorney General of New York, is the lead attorney for the NY Charities Bureau in this case. Her opening statement was made today in court which reportedly lasted for more than an hour.
From the Gothamist which is a news feed from WNYC – New York Public Radio on the opening statement:
Assistant Attorney General Monica Connell said in the state’s opening arguments that executives at the NRA violated both state laws and internal policies by spending excessive amounts of money and then covering up their expenditures. She said the organization’s leaders also “breached the trust” of the donors who “took money out of their pocket” to advance the NRA’s cause.
“They should be able to trust that their hard-earned money they donated will not be used for luxury travel,” Connell said.
Connell’s opening statement detailed some of the steep price tags the NRA’s executives charged to the organization in recent years, including millions of dollars on private flights. She also told jurors about the safeguards that are supposed to prevent nonprofits in New York from mismanaging funds. The assistant attorney general argued the NRA’s leaders worked to undermine those safeguards by lying, retaliating against whistleblowers and hiring high-ranking employees who would be more loyal to corrupt executives than to the mission of the organization.
They also reported that Wayne LaPierre watched on from the gallery which was filled with attorneys, observers, and reporters.
The Guardian has more of Connell’s opening statement to the jury.
“The NRA allowed Wayne LaPierre and his group of insiders … to operate the NRA as ‘Wayne’s World’ for decades,” Connell told a six-member jury that was sworn in earlier in the day, referencing the 1992 comedy movie starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.
“Wayne LaPierre and his friends effectively suppressed the voice of anyone who challenged his leadership.
“This case is about corruption in a charity. It’s about breaches of trust, it’s about power. People take their hard-earned money and donate it to charities they believe in. It doesn’t matter what the cause is. They should be able to trust that the hard-earned money they donate is going to advance the mission of that charity.”
Earlier today, the jury was seated. It consists of six jurors and six alternates. All 12 will be in the courtroom for the trial but only six will actually deliberate the charges. Moreover, under NY civil law and practice, a verdict can be delivered if five out of six agree on the verdict. It need not be unanimous.
UPDATE: Jim Shepherd of the Outdoor Wires was in the courtroom yesterday. He gives his impression of the start of the trial here.
From the firing of Lt. Col. Oliver North as NRA President at the now-infamous 2019 Annual Meetings in Indianapolis, to the harassment and retaliation charges of former NRA Board Members Esther Schneider and Phillip Journey, LaPierre was characterized as a man who broached no threats to his authority.
He was also characterized as a man who used the system to his advantage.
With a rudimentary knowledge of accounting and how the NRA’s internal structure operates, specifically in regards to the distinct lines between the National Rifle Association and the NRA-ILA (Institute for Legislative Action), I was confused by the details and accounting practices outlined by the prosecution. One can only imagine the confusion it caused jurors.
But the case appeared effective in one respect: despite occasionally digging deeply into details, it always wound its way back to a pair of key names: Wayne LaPierre and Woody Phillips. Throughout their joint tenure, the NRA coffers were allegedly used as “private piggy banks” for the duo, their chosen subordinates and enabling Board Members.
Interesting opening, and I can’t fault what was said.
I hope they fry his ass, and all of his cronies.
Seeing WLP in jail will make me happy.
I don’t see how the AG loses this one at trial. I can’t imagine a NYC jury not being biased and they may not even need to be. Appeals may be different (and provide an opportunity for Brewer to burn even more of the NRA’s money).
When it comes to remedies though an important question is “who is the NRA?” Is it the members, which seems to be implied in the AG’s statement or is it the corporate entity, essentially the board. If it is the members, the remedy is to dissolve the board (which are something between co-conspirators and negligent) and appoint receivers to conduct new election and reconstitute the administration using whatever is left of the resources. It matters greatly who the receivers are but the AG statement seems to say it would be supporters of the mission rather than anti-gun figures. If on the other hand, the NRA is deemed to be the corporate entity, it would seem that the likely remedy sought by the AG would be dissolution of the whole organization and disperse the remaining resources. This is the worst case where anti-gun forces get the money, if any.
I might be wrong, but I think the judge already said that the NRA would not be dissolved with the money being distributed to anti-gun groups.
My biggest thing I would like to mention is just how important Jim Sheperd is to gun owners. He is the only one that I know of in the gun press who really came out and condemned the leadership of the NRA, long ago. I hope that he has some kind of input on the next iteration of the NRA, if such a thing happens.
I think I saw that by the judge too but I didn’t really trust it. More and more the court system seems like a lottery with a lot of random results. But if the prosecutor isn’t seeking that remedy, that adds another level of protection when the outcome inevitably gets appealled.
The judge could of course be lying although hasn’t he been generally fair minded despite Brewer’s antics, but more concerning is that I assume he could be overruled by the two NY state appeals courts if the AG tries to push the dissolution result to them.
Note the naming scheme is non-standard for the US, this case is currently being heard by a judge in the “New York Supreme Court” system, the four intermediate appeals courts make up the “New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division,” and the final, single, what I think everyone else calls a supreme court is the “New York Court of Appeals.”
From what I’ve seen so far, the Appellate Division has denied all appeals of Judge Cohen’s decisions by the Brewer team.