All posts tagged "Nra"

The National Rifle Association has issued a statement attempting to explain why President Donald Trump will not attend the latest convention organized by the group.

NRA Director of Public Affairs Justin Davis said Trump's absence at the convention this weekend does not reflect a decline in the group's influence, despite some political analysts reading the snub as such. Davis said, "The president is obviously incredibly busy with worldwide affairs right now, and we’re incredibly close to the administration. We work hand-in-glove with them on all kinds of two-way issues.

"He’s incredibly helpful in everything we’re trying to do here, but we understand that he has very important things to do as well." Davis went on to say that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, would be at the convention. Davis said this meant the "administration will be here with us."...

Google no longer lists the National Rifle Association as a "human rights group" following a Raw Story article last week that highlighted Google's own search description of the gun rights organization.

Google did not return Raw Story requests for comments about the change, which affects the NRA's prominently placed "knowledge panel" — a Google-generated box containing descriptive and statistical information that appears when someone searches for the group.

"Human rights group” has been listed immediately below the NRA’s name and next to the organization’s logo....

Google “National Rifle Association.”

Search returns describe the gun-rights behemoth in various ways.

“Gun rights advocacy group,” Wikipedia reads....

This article originally appeared in OpenSecrets. Sign up for their weekly newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Following years of legal setbacks, internal strife and declining revenue, the National Rifle Association reported spending $540,000 in federal lobbying spending during the first quarter of 2024 — the least amount of money the group has spent at the start of a year since 2009, according to lobbying disclosures reviewed by OpenSecrets. Last year, the preeminent gun rights group spent $2.3 million, a near-record low.

In February, a New York jury found former NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre liable in a civil trial for misusing millions of dollars of the organization’s money to pay for his lavish lifestyle, including exotic getaways and trips on private planes. LaPierre resigned as executive vice president and CEO on the eve of the trial. ...

The National Rifle Organization and its former head, Wayne LaPierre, have been found liable for mismanagement in a civil corruption case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, reported ABC News on Friday.

The jury recommended that LaPierre be held for $5.4 million in damages; he has already repaid $1 million in the wake of the corruption scandal, according to reports.

"The New York Attorney General's Office sued the NRA and its senior management in 2020, claiming they misappropriated millions of dollars to fund personal benefits — including private jets, family vacations and luxury goods," reported Meredith Deliso, Aaron Katersky, and Peter Charalambous. "The accusations came at the end of a three-year investigation into the NRA, which is registered in New York as a nonprofit charitable corporation."...

This story was originally published by ProPublica in partnership with The Trace, a nonprofit news organization covering guns in America.

At a meeting in June 2009, the treasurer of the National Rifle Association worked out a plan to conceal luxury expenses involving its chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, according to audio of the meeting obtained by The Trace and ProPublica. The recording was unknown to New York’s attorney general, who is pursuing the NRA and LaPierre over a range of alleged financial misdeeds. It shows, in real time, the NRA’s treasurer enlisting the group’s longtime public relations firm to obfuscate the extravagant costs.