Letitia James might be a political activist using her office to conduct lawfare against people and organizations she doesn’t like. At the same time, the financial mismanagement done by and under the leadership of Wayne LaPierre has given James all the ammunition she needs to gut the organization’s leadership.
The civil corruption trial starts Monday. It’s civil meaning no jail time for those convicted, just the potential for huge financial penalties and restitution, along with court orders keeping those parties away from management or duties at any NY based non-profit or charitable organization.
Already Wayne LaPierre threw in the towel Friday, announcing his retirement citing health reasons. The smells to high heaven as the reason, but whatever. As I wrote somewhere, a pending trial date tends to clear one’s mind.
And now, late Friday came the news that LaPierre’s right hand man, Josh Powell (pictured above), has copped a deal with Letitia James. In short, he’s agreed to pay $100,000 and agreed to testify against LaPierre and his cronies in exchange for James dismissing him from her complaint. There are some other aspects to the agreement (which can be read here). The upside for the Quisling Powell, who is now shilling for gun control apparently to pay the bills after his disgraceful departure from the NRA, is that his liability is limited to that $100,000. If he had not taken the deal, he might have been on the hook for untold millions.
Given his treacherous nature, that would have been a darn shame.
I guarantee you two things: The rest of the NRA Board of Directors and Officers are burning up the phone lines with their attorneys trying to assess their personal liability for the fleecing of NRA resource for at least a decade and probably closer to two.
Secondly, the remaining defendants are trying to strike a Powell-like deal with James. But what they don’t know is that the first guy always gets the best deal. Maybe they could testify against other WLP cronies in NRA’s leadership.
Regardless, it surely looks like LaPierre’s a dead duck. And the leadership of the NRA will likely owe the NRA a whole lot of money. All those fancy flights, top shelf hotels, $20,000 suits and putting up “errant” interns near NRA HQ will have to be reimbursed. And LaPierre’s golden parachute contract will be gutted as well. Wayne will be lucky to afford a Holiday Inn Express when the court is done with him.
Time will tell, but Letitia James might just be the wrecking ball that was needed to excise the cancer that was LaPierre’s leadership and his political cronies on the board. Maybe, just maybe, with the cancer removed, the NRA can return stronger than ever.
Or they may be neutered.
In which cases there are plenty of organizations ready and able to fill those shoes left empty by the NRA. What’s more, these organizations may be a LOT less inclined to “negotiate” with the anti-gunners when it comes to legislative lobbying and playing politics.
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