- Press Release
Wayne LaPierre resigns ahead of trial for corruption suit filed after a March For Our Lives complaint
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Since March For Our Lives was founded, the NRA has been hemorrhaging supporters, money, and now leaders.
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Wayne LaPierre, the long-standing head of the National Rifle Association (NRA), announced his resignation, just days before his scheduled corruption trial in New York. The decision comes after an investigation into the NRA’s finances by the New York Attorney General (NYAG), initiated after March For Our Lives looked into the NRA’s finances and wrote a letter to the NYAG about potentially illegal activity by the NRA.
On November 19, 2018, the law firm Loeb & Loeb, on behalf of March For Our Lives, submitted a letter to then acting New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood regarding potentially illegal activity by the National Rifle Association. The letter provided information that “suggests a long-standing pattern of significant governance lapses at the NRA, including a pattern of related-party financial transactions over a period of years that appears to have enriched friends and relatives of key personnel in the NRA, including the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, and his wife.”
The original letter of complaint can be viewed in full here.
The letter shows patterns of governance disputes, misreporting of lobbying activities, contradictory sworn statements, unreported NRA lobbying by an outside organization, failures to report and/or conflicting reports of political activity at the federal and state-level, and more. Investigative reporters have recently uncovered additional stunning examples of likely diversions. LaPierre’s resignation makes clear that these are more than just allegations and marks a significant turning point for the NRA, its downfall.
When March For Our Lives was founded, the NRA was an untouchable and seemingly all-powerful political juggernaut. However, all it took was some meddling kids and a whole lot of determination to take down one of the largest and most powerful lobbying machines in American history. From demanding legal action, to campaigns that highlighted their illegal and immoral activities, March For Our Lives took on the NRA time and again, and since we marched in 2018 they’ve lost over a million members and nearly half their annual revenue. Now, the NRA is a shell of what it once was. They’ve learned the hard truth that young people and survivors are a force to be reckoned with. We look forward to watching the trial unfold and will continue to expose the corruption of the gun lobby until they can no longer profit off the death of children.
Thoughts and prayers, Wayne.