On the eve of a legal battle in New York, Wayne LaPierre told board members Friday that he will step down as the longtime head of the National Rifle Association.
Mr. LaPierre, 74, has led the NRA, once one of the nation’s most prominent lobbying organizations, for more than three decades. But his resignation came as he faced his most serious challenge yet, a corruption trial in Manhattan amid a legal clash with New York Attorney General Letitia James. Jury selection has already begun, and Mr. LaPierre has been in the courtroom for part of it. Preliminary arguments were scheduled for early next week.
Mr. LaPierre’s resignation, which is effective Jan. 31, did not stem from any settlement with the attorney general’s office, and Ms. James said Friday that she expected the lawsuit to move forward. Mr. LaPierre’s longtime spokesman, Andrew Arulanandam, will become the NRA’s interim chief executive. This development was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
“Proud of what we have accomplished, I am announcing my resignation from the NRA,” Mr. LaPierre said in a statement. “I have been a card-carrying member of this organization for most of my adult life, and I will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to protect Second Amendment freedoms. “My passion for our cause is as strong as ever.”
The announcement came during a board meeting in Irving, Texas. The NRA said Mr. LaPierre attributed his decision to “health reasons.”
Since Ms. James began the investigation four years ago amid reports of reckless spending practices at the organization, the NRA has said it has attempted to reform. On Friday, the group reiterated that it is “committed to good governance” and said it has already “accepted reimbursement from Lapierre, including interest, for the alleged excess profit transaction.”
But Mr. LaPierre faces an uphill battle in convincing a New York judge to keep him in office, given what has already gone public about his alleged mismanagement. Late last year, perhaps in anticipation of his departure, Mr. Lapierre promoted longtime loyalist Mr. Arulanandam.
Now, Mr. Lapierre’s The resignation would renew the Manhattan case in which Ms. James was trying to oust him.
She is still trying to prevent Mr. Lapierre from holding any position in the group. She is also seeking financial penalties from him and two other defendants. A fourth defendant, Joshua Powell, a former top deputy to Mr. LaPierre, reached a deal with the attorney general’s office Friday night, agreeing to pay $100,000 in restitution and serve as an executive at a nonprofit operating in New York. It was agreed to impose a permanent ban on serving in the ,
The financial penalty will flow back to the NRA, a nonprofit group that was founded in New York and falls under Ms. James’s jurisdiction.
“The end of the Wayne LaPierre era at the NRA is an important victory for our case,” Ms. James said. a social media post on Friday afternoon. “LaPierre’s resignation validates our claims against him, but it will not shield him from accountability. We look forward to presenting our case in court.”
Mr. LaPierre played a leading role in changing gun culture in America, but the last half decade of his tenure at the NRA was filled with scandal and internal turmoil. In recent years, the group has been in poor shape.
Membership has declined from about 6 million five years ago to 4.2 million today. Revenue has declined 44 percent since 2016, according to an internal audit, and legal costs have soared into the millions per year.
Nonetheless, the gun rights movement has become a bastion of Republican politics during Mr. LaPierre’s years leading the NRA, with a temporary assault weapons ban signed into law early in his tenure; Today, despite the prevalence of mass shootings, such measures are a non-starter for Republicans.
Mr. LaPierre’s departure was the latest surprise turn in the NRA’s strategy, following the hiring of William A. LaPierre, a Texas lawyer, to become the organization’s chief outside counsel in 2018. Brewer III has been unpredictable since leaving. Mr. Brewer was the architect of the 2021 bankruptcy filing that was kept secret from the organization’s general counsel and most of its board. Ultimately a Texas judge rejected it.
Mr. Brewer, a Democrat, also recently received the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union in a federal lawsuit; That lawsuit accuses former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and his administration of abusing their authority by barring banks and insurers from doing business with the NRA.
Mr. LaPierre’s testimony at the trial is likely to focus largely on his spending patterns. He was a regular for more than a decade at the Zegna boutique in Beverly Hills, where he spent nearly $40,000 in one May 2004 outing, billed through an NRA contractor.
He also spent more than $250,000 on trips to, among other places, Palm Beach, Florida, Reno, Neves, the Bahamas and Lake Como in Italy. He has argued that these were legitimate business expenses.
As the corruption scandal has progressed, Mr. LaPierre’s allies have diminished, with some of his sharpest critics coming from within the NRA.
Mr. Powell, the defendant who settled Friday, was the organization’s second-in-command for a time, but he later turned against Mr. LaPierre’s leadership and even pushed for some legislation, including universal background checks for gun buyers. Called for gun control measures.
“It has taken too long and is too late after more than 30 years of corruption reigniting the government,” Mr. Powell said in an email about Mr. LaPierre’s departure. “At this point the NRA is little more than a shell of itself after spending hundreds of millions in legal fees. The NRA will need a new strong dynamic leader to dig itself out of that deep hole.
Gun control groups were happy to see Mr. LaPierre go.
“Thoughts and prayers,” said Nick Suplina, a former senior adviser and special counsel to the attorney general’s office who now works for the gun control advocacy group Everytown.
“I think the attorney general sought to remove Wayne LaPierre as the head of the NRA and she got what she wanted,” he said.
