by While I have been following the NRA’s trial in New York, I have been holding off writing about it until the New York Attorney General’s Office has rested their case. Based upon what I have read, that appears to be this coming Monday, February 5th. There is a lot there and I want to make sense of it all before tendering my complete opinion.
That said, the quote of the day comes from Stephen Gutowski of The Reload. It involves the testimony of NRA Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer.
In it, the NRA’s top lawyer defended his integrity. When asked if LaPierre had breached his trust when he failed to disclose his now-admitted use of NRA funds for personal expenses, Frazer said he wouldn’t characterize it that way.
“I think Mr. LaPierre has always been very open and honest with me in terms of communications that we would have and then trying to rectify the issues,” he said.
But, when asked if LaPierre breached the trust of NRA members, he took an agonized pause before responding.
“I’d have to say probably yes,” Frazer testified.
LaPierre walked slowly out of the courtroom–and the NRA–on that note.
While I am glad that Mr. Frazer is finally recognizing that Wayne LaPierre breached the trust of the NRA members, it is sad that Frazer is only now coming out and saying it. His fiduciary duty which included a duty of loyalty was to the organization which means the members and not to Wayne LaPierre. He is not alone in that breach of fiduciary duty. There are many members of the Board of Directors who likewise breached their duty in their loyalty to Wayne instead of the members. Whether it was due to ignorance or a willful choice, it really doesn’t matter.
The victim in this trial has never been the state of New York. It has always been the members of the NRA who paid their dues and donated what they could to the organization because they believed in the mission. In return, they were used as the personal piggy banks to support the avaricious lifestyles of the Millies, the Waynes, the Susans, and those of their ilk.
