Associated Press/Evan Vucci
- The NRA corruption trial began Monday with Wayne LaPierre described to jurors as the group's "king."
- Prior to openings, NRA lawyers spun LaPierre's resignation as proof of a "course correction."
- LaPierre resigned due to chronic Lymes disease, his lawyers also revealed.
The National Rifle Association hopes to dodge penalties at their New York civil corruption trial by arguing that NRA leader Wayne LaPierre's sudden resignation last week helps prove there is no longer "ongoing and persistent" wrongdoing at the gun lobby.
Jurors should hear evidence of the NRA's "course correction," including that LaPierre is on his way out, the gun lobby argued in a court filing this weekend.
The NRA was not LaPierre's enabler, they argued. Rather, they were a victim of "former rogue officers," the gun lobby argued, apparently now lumping LaPierre in with the rogues.
The NRA's sudden turning on their leader of 30 years drew skepticism from Attorney General Letitia James.
In a response filed Sunday, she suggested that the resignation's timing, three days before Monday's opening statements, was meant to gain an advantage at trial.
LaPierre, who was in court Monday and attended three out of five days of jury selection, announced Friday that he was retiring, effective January 31, for unstated "health reasons." His lawyers elaborated over the weekend that LaPierre suffers from chronic Lyme disease.
"After standing lockstep with Mr. LaPierre for more than three years litigating this case," James side wrote Sunday, "the NRA suddenly purports to reverse course."
LaPierre's departure is now being portrayed by the NRA as an example of "clear corrective action" and as "an excuse to avoid liability," said her filing, signed by Monica Connell, a special counsel to James.
The NRA's reference to misconduct by "former rogue officers" is noteworthy, she adds, as a designation "which now presumably include[s] Mr. LaPierre."
"The NRA should not be permitted to present Mr. LaPierre's resignation as a component of its defense" at trial, Connell added.
The written exchange between the NRA and the AG came ahead of the state's opening statements in a Manhattan courtroom Monday, also by Connell.
In her openings, she promised jurors that testimony over the next five weeks would show that loyal NRA employees saw LaPierre as their "king" and that they enabled him to squander "hundreds of millions" of donor dollars on his cronies and his own lavish lifestyle.
Jurors were screened and selected in secrecy, behind closed doors in the judge's chambers.
Journalists, including from Business Insider, were kept in the dark about the process despite repeatedly asking the judge and the state court system for an opportunity to oppose in advance if jury selection was being held in private.
In a statement made from the bench before the jurors were called in, the judge presiding at the trial, New York Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen, said secrecy was the only way prospective jurors could participate "in candor" given "a number of sensitive issues."
Lawyers for the NRA, LaPierre, and two co-defendants have denied wrongdoing and will make their own opening statements on Tuesday.
But in their final pretrial filing, the gun lobby's lawyers wrote that, especially after LaPierre's recent resignation, the AG can no longer show "ongoing or imminent harm to the public."
"The NRA has stopped, and shows no intent to resume, the practices of which the NYAG complains," the defense wrote, using the initials for "New York attorney general."
"This inference is underscored by the departure of Wayne LaPierre, the officer alleged to have exercised 'power and control' over the NRA," the filing added.
Jurors should be barred from holding the NRA liable unless the AG proves that "improper administration" of the group "is continuing or imminently likely to recur," they argued.
James began her inquiry into the NRA in February 2019 and wants the gun lobby found liable for executive misconduct.
She's hoping that the jury will find that loyal members of the 76-person board ignored or indulged LaPierre's excesses. She hopes that the judge will then bar the NRA from ever reinstalling him back to the not-for-profit's helm.
LaPierre enjoys high popularity in the five-million-member group. He had been re-elected as leader in 2022, two years after the AG's allegations against him were first revealed.
The AG's lawsuit was filed in August 2020 and has been mired for over three years in pre-trial litigation. In addition to the NRA and LaPierre, it names as defendants current general counsel John Frazer, the current general counsel, and Wilson "Woody" Phillips, the former CFO.
The suit seeks to force LaPierre, Frazer, and Phillips to repay a yet-determined, jury-specified amount back to the NRA. It also seeks to ensure they can never serve on the board of a New York charity again.
The NRA "operated on a 'Wayne-says' basis," even as LaPierre steered millions to his friends and himself, including by traveling to Greece, Dubai, and the Mediterranean on the donors' dime, the lawyer for the state attorney general's office, Connell, told jurors in Monday's openings.
Employees will testify that LaPierre was seen as "the king of the NRA," Connell told the six jurors and six alternates. Loyal board members looked the other way or actively enabled his greed, she said.
James had heralded "the end of the Wayne LaPierre era" in a press response to Friday's news of LaPierre's sudden resignation. But James also noted in her statement that the resignation "will not insulate him or the NRA from accountability."
The judge has not said if LaPierre's resignation will impact what evidence can come in or his instructions to jurors.