The National Rifle Association (NRA) is suing its own charitable arm, the NRA Foundation, claiming that its leaders are trying to seize control of the gun rights organization and illegally “repurposing” $160m in donations to support their “thirst for power”.
The allegations come in a lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court in Washington DC laying bare the turmoil that has plagued the NRA since its disgraced longtime chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, was ousted in 2024 alongside other senior figures after a financial corruption scandal.
A New York state jury found NRA executives liable in February 2024 for misspending millions of dollars, with LaPierre accused of treating the group’s funds as a “personal piggy bank” for private flights, countless overseas vacations, designer clothing and other luxuries.
“The Foundation has been seized by a disgruntled faction of former NRA directors who lost control of the NRA’s Board following revelations of financial improprieties, mismanagement, and breaches of fiduciary duty and member trust,” the 36-page lawsuit states.
“Booted out of power by the NRA’s members, they now seek to reclaim it through the Foundation.”
Among the allegations made by the association’s new leadership is that the LaPierre-aligned group sought to remove the NRA’s right to appoint foundation directors, were “hijacking the NRA’s trademarks, including the NRA name”, and moved to divert $160m from the NRA’s charitable programs.
“Donor intent matters, and the NRA members and supporters attending fundraising events and responding to the NRA’s solicitations intended to support the NRA’s public-interest programs, not the vendettas and thirst for power of those who failed the NRA,” the lawsuit says.
“The Foundation’s current leaders have no right to mislead donors who intend to support the NRA into supporting an organization that has turned against it.”
The NRA Foundation, founded in 1990 to raise “tax-deductible contributions in support of a wide range of firearm-related public interest activities of the National Rifle Association of America”, did not respond to a request for comment.
No date has yet been set to hear the lawsuit, in which the NRA is demanding a jury trial and a block on the foundation from using the NRA name, trademark and logo. It names the foundation as defendant, rather than its individual directors, but points the finger at “a faction allied with former NRA executive vice president and CEO Wayne LaPierre”.
According to the filing: “The Foundation’s beef with the NRA is personal. It is driven by a clique of former NRA leaders who are bitter that their faction lost control of the NRA’s Board following a series of scandals that led to a loss of member confidence, and the rise of a competing movement to reform the NRA that ultimately gained control of the NRA Board.”
The financial scandal that enveloped the NRA, the nation’s largest gun rights advocacy group, came to light in 2018 when it reported a $36m deficit. Oliver North, the group’s former president and former national security council military aide best known for his central role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, resigned in 2019, claiming he was pushed out for highlighting financial irregularities and LaPierre’s misspending.
The NRA declared bankruptcy in 2021, a move rejected by a federal judge who saw it as a maneuver designed to avoid the lawsuit by New York state attorney general, Letitia James, that ultimately toppled its leaders.
The new lawsuit purports that the foundation’s activities since were designed to set itself up as “competition” to the NRA rather than being supportive of it.
Highlighting the NRA’s “important public-interest programs – from teaching gun safety to kids to educating Americans on firearms handling, self-defense, hunting, and marksmanship”, it accuses foundation leaders of betraying their principles.
“It is a further injustice upon the donors that their money – donated with these same noble purposes in mind – be misappropriated for other purposes to further the Foundation leaders’ personal vendetta against the NRA’s current leadership,” it states.
Doug Hamlin, who succeeded LaPierre as NRA chief executive and executive vice-president, said the lawsuit was “a last resort” to protect itself from a takeover.
“This is a disappointing day, and it should not have come to this,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
“A foundation established to support the National Rifle Association of America has taken actions that are adversarial at a time when the NRA is rebuilding and focused on its long-term mission. I am deeply disappointed that these steps were taken, leaving no reasonable alternative.”
