NRA ADMITS ABUSE OF EXECUTIVE BENEFITS BY ITS OFFICERS

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has disclosed that current and former top executives received at least $1.4 million in improper or excessive benefits from the organization in violation of nonprofit rules, the first time the group has publicly admitted the lapses, Mark Maremont reported for the Wall Street Journal.

The NRA, in its tax filing covering 2019, also reported a $12.2 million deficit and a 34% decline in member dues in 2019, as the gun-rights organization grappled with internal turmoil and external legal probes related to alleged expense abuses by its top officials.

On September 7, 2020, ABC News correspondents Pierre Thomas and Pete Madden also had an interview with Joshua Powell, who formerly served as chief of staff to longtime NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, who said the lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James seeking to dissolve the NRA for an array of "illegal conduct" merely scratches the surface of a much deeper culture of corruption.

"I think the NRA faces a massive threat," Powell said. "I think that the attorney general is really at the tip of the iceberg in understanding what's gone on at the [NRA] for 30 years." Powell, one of four top NRA executives named in the lawsuit, is now seeking to distance himself from the organization he once helped lead. He not only decried the alleged mismanagement of millions of dollars in charitable donations for the personal use of the organization's top executives but also denounced the organization's posture on the issue of gun violence, particularly in the wake of school shootings, as self-serving and dangerous. "Gun owners across America," Powell said, "should be horrified by what I saw inside of the NRA."