National Rifle Association officials reached a last-minute agreement Saturday with New York Attorney General Letitia James ahead of a multimillion-dollar civil corruption trial against the organization that begins Monday.
Joshua Powell, the former executive director of the embattled nonprofit and one of five defendants named in the AG's lawsuit, received $100,000, according to a statement from James' office. He agreed to pay the dollar amount and admitted to misusing charity funds.
Powell is a former chief of staff to longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre, who resigned Friday after 30 years at the helm of the gun rights group. The group announced in a statement that LaPierre will leave the group on January 31st.
“Joshua Powell's admission of wrongdoing and Wayne LaPierre's resignation confirm what we have been saying for years: The NRA and its executives are financially corrupt,” James said in a statement. “There is,” he said.
“More than three years ago, my office sued the NRA and its senior management team for decades of financial abuse and mismanagement. We look forward to ensuring that they are brought to justice for their actions.”
James filed a lawsuit against the organization in 2020, alleging executives used the nonprofit as a “personal piggy bank” and funneled millions of dollars in donations into expensive meals and trips to the Caribbean. He claimed to have used it for family vacations and private jets.
Efforts by the NRA to dismiss the New York lawsuit against them failed in January 2021, the same month the group filed for bankruptcy protection and announced it would leave “toxic” New York and reincorporate in Texas.
The group is headquartered in Virginia, but was chartered as a nonprofit organization in New York in 1871 and incorporated in that state.
“The plan can be summarized very simply: We are proceeding with a plan to dump New York and reincorporate the NRA into Texas,” LaPierre said at the time.
In May 2021, a federal judge dismissed the bankruptcy case because it was not filed in good faith.
