Letitia James was elected Attorney General of New York State on a platform of using the full power of her office to target “illegitimate” Donald Trump and those around him. She is the epitome of the politicized #Resistance prosecutor.
So it’s no real surprise that yesterday James teased a press conference for today with a “major national” announcement. Anti-Trump Twitter was abuzz that maybe this was it, she would indicte Trump and his companies.
No such luck. That would be too brazenly political even for James on the eve of the election. Instead, she settled for announcing she would seek to dissove the NRA.
Here is the Complaint (pdf) and AG Press Announcement:
In the complaint, Attorney General James lays out dozens of examples where the four individual defendants failed to fulfill their fiduciary duty to the NRA and used millions upon millions from NRA reserves for personal use, including trips for them and their families to the Bahamas, private jets, expensive meals, and other private travel. In addition to shuttering the NRA’s doors, Attorney General James seeks to recoup millions in lost assets and to stop the four individual defendants from serving on the board of any not-for-profit charitable organization in the state of New York again.“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” said Attorney General James. “The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.”
There have been a lot of reports of infighting and excessive spending by NRA executives, so there likely is some truth to the excessive spending allegations. Whether that meets the statutory standard for dissolving the entity is a very different question which will not be answered in the courts for years.
The NRA has responded:
But legalities aside, this is totally political. A lashing out at the closest thing to Trump as James could get her hands on this close to the election.
But it will backfire. It sends the signal, once again, that Democrats want to take your guns and remove any political opposition to get there. It undoubtedly will boost NRA membership and donations,and give Trump a talking point.
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