by An email went out yesterday from the NRA’s Office of General Counsel to staff and directors telling them to preserve documents. This was because former NRA President Lt. Col. Oliver North would be filing suit against the NRA for “malicious prosecution” tomorrow. While I have seen the email on document preservation, I have not seen the complaint from North’s intended lawsuit nor do I know in which court the case will be tried.
This motivated me to go back and read through the documents in the case the NRA filed against Oliver North in 2020 in Albany, New York. The NRA sought a declaratory judgment from the court that New York Non-Profit Corporation Law did not prevent the NRA from following its bylaw process for expelling Col. North if found guilty of an ethics complaint filed by Director Tom King. This case was dismissed on March 7, 2025 by mutual agreement of the NRA and Col. North.
Prior to the case being dismissed, Col. North had moved for summary judgment in his favor given the outcome of the New York Attorney General’s case against the NRA. In response, the NRA’s new lawyers from Baker & Hostetler LLP requested a pre-motion conference and permission of the court to voluntarily dismiss the case with prejudice.
The response from Col. North opposing the voluntary dismissal may give some indication as to what will come up in his new lawsuit.
The NRA intends to dismiss their case after the damage has been done to Col. North (and the NRA), and retreat as quietly as possible, whereas Col. North asks, in fairness, for a proper judgment so that a stake is placed into the heart of this protracted campaign by the NRA to use its power and its members’ funds to retaliate against its former President for doing the right thing by reporting misconduct and seeking a proper course correction.
Col. North was seeking a judgment on the merits showing that he was a whistleblower who suffered retaliation from the NRA.
The NRA used an ethics complaint filed by Tom King against Col. North as the basis of its lawsuit. The complaint accused Col. North of a number of ethical and fiduciary breeches that came to a head at the 2019 NRA Annual Meeting when King accuses North of trying to “extort” Wayne LaPierre in order to keep his position as President of the NRA. He contends that North’s desire to investigate the billings of the Brewer law firm were motivated by greed and to keep his multi-million dollar contract with Ackerman-McQueen. Bear in mind that it did come out later that not only was the NRA aware of the contract, the Audit Committee approved it and Wayne himself help negotiate it on North’s behalf. King called the request to examine Brewer’s billings “not only unwarranted but unprecedented.”
I could go on but you can read it for yourself below. If anyone should be the target of an ethics complaint it should be the author of this complaint for its baseless allegations of “extortion”, “greed”, and “blackmail.” One can only hope the voting members of the NRA see through King and do not return him to the Board of Directors. We will find that out next week when the 2025 Board of Directors’ election results are released. The sad reality is that it will be left to the reformers to clean up the mess left by the departed parties including Wayne, Brewer, and the rest.
It was malicious but the lawsuit isn’t helpful. At least he should have waited until the outcome of the election was known.
I can’t disagree with you. I will say that I have not found the lawsuit complaint yet and it was supposed to be filed on Friday, April 4th. He could be holding off. Fingers crossed.
Can’t say that I blame him. Sigh…
There are important words that deserve some attention. Quoting from the 2/25/2025 filing (opposing NRA’s letter requesting a pre-motion conference), think what a person has been through for the past SIX YEARS: “…withdrawing the lawsuit at this point is neither reasonable nor fair to Col. North given the years lost to NRA’s retaliatory campaign against him. Having been found liable for wrongdoing, the NRA should not be allowed to withdraw its claims and go home before the Court has had an opportunity to rule on Col. North’s pending motion on the merits. After this extended saga, Col. Noth is entitled to close the record with a judgment on the merits…”
Now think again about what the very few good people have had to deal with in all of these intervening years and what NRA was trying to do by worming out of it. From the next paragraph: “The NRA intends to dismiss their case after the damage has been done to Col. North (and the NRA), and retreat as quietly as possible, whereas Col. North asks, in fairness, for a proper judgment so that a stake is placed into the heart of this protracted campaign by the NRA to use its power and its members’ funds to retaliate against its former President for doing the right thing by reporting misconduct and seeking a proper course correction.”
So that A STAKE IS PLACED INTO THE HEART of those schemes.
Excellent points by you and thank you.
Ollie has a better than 70% on prevailing and is just more money wasted on attorneys rather than settling.
One last note to Mr. Richard John Richardson, your buddy, Willis Lee was literally at the heart of the lawsuits against Ollie as one of the 3 founding members of the SLC.!
And you ruthlessly endorsed such a corrupt director who also was involved in fixing NRA elections and refuses to show any remorse for his past exploits. Very disappointing of you.