A former executive of the top level in the National Rifle Association, Joshua Powell admitted to wrongdoing and has agreed to pay $100,000 in advance of the civil corruption trial of the top executives of the company scheduled to start on Monday.
The settlement announcement by the New York state attorney general’s office on Friday was made the same day NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre, 74, announced his resignation from the NRA after more than three decades.
“Joshua Powell’s confession of wrongdoing as well as Wayne LaPierre’s resignation affirm what we’ve been claiming for years: that the NRA and its leaders are financially corrupt” New York Attorney General Letitia James stated in an official statement.
In her civil suit, James has accused top NRA officials of stealing more than $64 million in cash given to gun dealers.
The suit alleges LaPierre and other defendants utilized the money to buy luxurious vacations, private jets and to finance no-shows for their acquaintances and friends. Powell was previously identified among five defendants. the trial against the remaining defendants is scheduled to move ahead as planned.
LaPierre as well as The NRA are both denials of any wrongdoing.
Powell was the head of the operations department and was chief of staff for NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre, but in recent times, he broke off from the NRA, establishing himself as an opponent of the gun rights group’s fundraising methods and releasing the book “The Truth About NRA” in 2020.
“The financials of the NRA are in disarray,” Powell wrote in a report that portrayed the NRA as a part of “the the swindler cultural ethos that is Conservative Inc.”
In a conversation in 2020 on NPR, Powell said that under LaPierre’s leadership the NRA attempted to make gun owners to raise money.
“The expression ‘pour gasoline over the flame’ comes the words Wayne has spoken to God’s ears … the truth is that it’s easy to make money through the fear of losing,” he said.
The NRA is, however, claimed that this lawsuit is an attempt by a Democratic State Attorney General to discredit the once powerful gun rights group.
These arguments were rejected in an extended appeals court procedure that opened the door to the trial on Monday.
A statement was released on Friday Friday, the NRA stated that LaPierre would be stepping off due to health reasons.
“I will never stop defending this organization, the NRA in its battle to protect Second Amendment freedom,” said the NRA’s president. “My love for our cause is as strong as it ever has.”
While at the head of the NRA, LaPierre moved the NRA to the right by taking a hardline stance against gun control despite gun violence and mass shootings increased throughout the U.S. The use of firearms is now the leading cause of deaths for children Americans.
In a statement issued on Friday, the president of the Brady gun control advocacy group, Kris Brown, issued an announcement that the “NRA is at risk” due to its legal problems.
“Wayne LaPierre has spent the last thirty years promoting the falsehood that more guns are more secure,” she said in an announcement.
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