(Bloomberg) — A New York judge expressed skepticism about the state’s attempt to dissolve the National Rifle Association over decades of financial malfeasance, asking why the matter couldn’t be resolved in a way that would “preserve an entity of this vintage.”
“The question is why can’t the two be separated?” Manhattan state court judge Joel M. Cohen asked at a Friday hearing over an NRA motion to dismiss the suit. “Why can’t you address the financial issues without dissolving the entire entity?”
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the gun-rights group late last year alleging it violated state laws governing charitable organizations by using donated funds to enrich longtime leader Wayne LaPierre and other executives. The NRA was founded in New York in 1871.
Jonathan Conley, a lawyer in James’s office, said at the hearing that New York law governing charities must be respected.
‘Entrenched Management’
“The NRA has had numerous opportunities over several years — with red flags being presented — to correct its operations and it has over and over again elected not to do so,” Conley said.
But Cohen repeatedly asked Conley how the public would be served by dissolving the NRA rather than changing the “very small core” of management accused of wrongdoing. Conley agreed the NRA’s alleged actions were the result of “entrenched management.”
“Entrenched management in my experience never removes itself,” the judge said. “That’s what entrenched means.
James’s suit was filed after an investigation revealed what the state described as rampant misuse of donated funds on luxury expenses for NRA leadership. The NRA’s attempt to avoid the lawsuit by filing for bankruptcy failed after a Texas judge called the Chapter 11 case a misuse of the law.
The NRA has said James, a Democrat who yesterday abandoned a run to be New York governor, is seeking its “corporate death” for political purposes.
Read More: NRA Must Face New York Fraud Lawsuit Seeking to Dissolve It
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