Wilson “Woody” Phillips, the first defendant to be called to the stand in the civil trial against the National Rifle Association and its executives, testified Friday that he billed the NRA for his interstate commute after he bought a new home in Texas and that he received $30,000 a month in compensation after he left the group.
Phillips spent 25 years overseeing the gun rights group’s finances as its treasurer and chief financial officer from 1993 to 2018.
He is fending off a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2020 that alleges the NRA and two other current and former executives violated nonprofit laws and misused millions of dollars of the organization’s charitable assets for personal use.
Longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre and John Frazer, the group’s corporate secretary and general counsel, are also defendants.
Phillips, 75, lived in Virginia, where the NRA is headquartered, until 2015 when he bought property in Dallas and began spending about 60% of his time there. He testified that the NRA reimbursed him for that commute and for hotels for three years and that he did not tell the group’s compensation committee about those expenses.
As part of his compensation contract with the NRA, Phillips said he received $30,000 a month for at least five months after he retired from the group.
In her line of questioning just before proceedings ended early Friday afternoon, an attorney with the AG’s office was questioning Phillips about contracts awarded to a former girlfriend that he was not disclosing.
LaPierre is accused of diverting millions of dollars away from the NRA to spend on “lavish perks” for himself, including personal use of private jets, expensive meals, travel consultants, private security and trips to the Bahamas for him and his family.
The other defendants allegedly “went along with this,” Monica Connell, an attorney with the AG’s office, said during her opening arguments Monday.
Connell claimed Phillips…
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