[ad_1]
The ANR has accumulated over the past year huge legal bills that threaten to debilitate the organization, according to documents posted anonymously online that seem to have been written by the former president of the group, Oliver North. The bills highlight the extraordinary legal challenges of the organization. A person close to the case has confirmed the authenticity of the documents at the Daily Beast. Stephen Gutowski of Washington Free Beacon was the first reporter to report documents Friday.
Senior NRA officials have challenged the claims of the documents, but not their authenticity.
The documents include a confidential memo that Richard Childress, NRA and Northern Manager, addressed to the NRA General Counsel and the Chair of the Audit Committee, dated April 18, 2019 – the week before the dramatic filing of the NRA President. (The NRA has suspended the long-standing lawyer from its board of directors at the same time.) In the memo, North said he was "deeply concerned by the extraordinary legal fees incurred by the NRA" by outside lawyer Bill Brewer. . North and Childress then requested an independent review of Brewer's bills. Brewer has defended his fees in the past by telling the Wall Street newspaper"We are a leading law firm, we do not hesitate about it."
North's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. By phone, Childress declined to comment.
"Brewer's bills are exhausting NRA funds at a bewildering rate," North and Childress wrote, adding that the fees "constituted an existential threat to the financial stability of the NRA".
"It's a financial emergency," they continued, "but we could not convince management to have an independent external review to make sure these invoices are necessary and reasonable.
According to the memo, Brewer had charged $ 24,324,290 to ANR since being hired last year, and a portion of this amount had been repaid in a dispute against a company. Insurance, leaving the ANR 18.5 million dollars.
North and Childress estimated that at the current rate, the NRA accumulates nearly $ 100,000 in legal bills each day – a staggering figure.
"$ 97,000 + a day is an incredible amount to pay for any organization," they wrote. "He's calling for an independent external review."
They also wrote that they had repeatedly asked for bills to be reviewed by third parties, including two of the managing director, Wayne LaPierre, who had refused to order such an audit.
"If the invoices are reasonable and well documented, why the refusal to conduct an independent review?" They wrote.
They also stated that the Brewer business engagement letter was "inconsistent with industry standards," claiming that the ANR was not properly managing the company's work, asked why the company did not grant him a non-profit reduction and claimed that Brewer was working "personally" to stop an external examination.
Two senior NRA officials rejected the memo's claims in The Daily Beast, claiming they came from an unreliable narrator and alluding to their involvement in a smear campaign targeting LaPierre.
"Brewer's Legal Fees Note is inaccurate, reflecting an uninformed view of the firm, its billing and advocacy for the NRA," said Charles L. Cotton, Senior Vice President and President of the firm. audit committee of the NRA. "The board supports the work of the company, the results achieved and the value of its services. Importantly, this relationship has been reviewed, verified and approved. "
"Brewer's bills are exhausting NRA funds at a breathtaking speed …"
– Oliver North and Richard Childress, NRA Manager
The group's new president, Carolyn Meadows, has amplified this sentiment.
"This is outdated information, which is recycled by those with personal agendas," she said in a statement. "In any case, the entire board is fully aware of these issues. We have full confidence in Wayne LaPierre and his work for the NRA and its members. It is troubling and a little pathetic that some people resort to the disclosure of information to advance their programs. This does not affect Wayne's support for the board and the work the NRA does to protect the constitutional freedoms of the United States. "
Neither the NRA nor its external board challenged the authenticity of the disclosed memo. On the contrary, they challenge his claims.
The fact that the memo was leaked is significant; dozens of council members have access to it for weeks, and it contains confidential allegations that could embarrass people close to the NRA.
The last two years have presented extraordinary challenges to the NRA, both inside and outside. After the election of President Donald Trump, donations to the association have taken a nose; The group reported $ 55 million less in 2017 than in 2016, as reported by the Daily Beast.
At the same time, the conviction of Russian national Maria Butina for conspiring as a secret agent in friendship with the biggest bigwigs of the NRA exerted extraordinary pressure on the group. Working with Alexander Torshin, then head of Russia's powerful central bank and now the target of US sanctions, Butina forged close ties with the group's relatives and helped organize the visit of some of their senior officials to Moscow in December 2015. During the trip, NRA visitors met powerful Kremlin officials.
Butina's activities attracted media attention and the Senate Intelligence Committee opened an investigation. The NRA sent a number of documents to the committee, which has not yet published its findings.
At the same time, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo discouraged the state's financial institutions from dealing with the association. The group is based in New York and its key figures say Cuomo's decision has hindered its ability to operate. The NRA responded to Cuomo's decision by prosecuting him in federal court – a litigation in which Brewer worked. They won important victories, including securing ACLU support and a green light from a federal judge to advance charges that Cuomo violated the first amendment.
In addition to all this, the Attorney General of New York State, Letitia James, has opened an investigation into the organization. And New Yorker issued a detailed report suggesting that the group would have violated state laws governing non-profit organizations. Expenses incurred by the association's long-time advertising company, Ackerman McQueen, have also been scrutinized. The Wall Street Journal, also citing leaked documents, reported Saturday that the company had helped pay for LaPierre's luxury clothing and travel expenses. Last month, NRA sued the firm for documents regarding its expenses and its bills. In this litigation, North concealed details of the firm's relationship with the NRA.
[ad_2]
Source link