by According to posts by court watchers, the jury in the NRA’s New York trial have returned with a verdict. The jurors reportedly are coming down to the court room.
From ABC News:
After five days of deliberations, a jury in New York on Friday held the National Rifle Association liable for financial mismanagement and found that Wayne LaPierre, the group’s former CEO, corruptly ran the nation’s most prominent gun rights group.
The jury determined that LaPierre’s violation of his duties cost the NRA $5,400,000, though he already repaid roughly $1.5 million to the organization.
LaPierre, staring forward with his hands clasped in his lap, sat in the first row of the gallery while the jury read the verdict.
I will be adding to this post as more info becomes available.
UPDATE I: More from Erik Uebelacker on Twitter.
Here's specifically what they ruled, as it relates to LaPierre. They said he cost the NRA $5.4 million but already repaid more than $1 million. pic.twitter.com/VUEO1iPS6c
— Erik Uebelacker (@Uebey) February 23, 2024
UPDATE II: It looks like Woody Phillips is on the hook for $2 million.
From Rachel Scharf of Law360:
VERDICT: Somewhat mixed, but crux is NRA is liable for almost everything, LaPierre must repay $4.4M, and Phillips must repay $2M.
— Rachel Scharf (@rscharf_) February 23, 2024
UPDATE III: I am getting mixed messages regarding John Frazer. According to Scharf, the jury did not ban him unlike Wayne LaPierre. However, another report reports they found Frazer acted “inappropriately” but did not cause financial harm.
The AP by way of The Hour is reporting that “NRA omitted or misrepresented information in its tax filings and violated New York law by failing to adopt a whistleblower policy.” There is no word yet on whether they were found guilty of retaliation against the whistleblowers. (They were)
Reportedly, LaPierre plans to appeal according to his attorney Kent Correll.
UPDATE IV: Rachel Scharf gives a bit more clarity with these charts:
The trial will now move to the bench phase where Judge Joel Cohen will implement remedies. I tend to agree with NRA In Danger that a court-appointed monitor is almost certain. I do know that Rocky Marshall deliberately made that suggestion in his first-day testimony which caused quite some consternation among the lawyers.