Internal turmoil that plagued the National Rifle Association five years ago resurfaced Tuesday during testimony at a civil corruption trial in New York, when the gun rights group’s former chief financial officer was asked about a contract agreement for then-NRA president Oliver North.
Wilson “Woody” Phillips, the chief steward of the NRA’s finances from 1993 to 2018, said during his second day of testimony that he was aware that North in 2018 was entering into a contract with Ackerman McQueen, the group’s longtime advertising firm. And while the firm then sought reimbursement from the NRA for paying North more than $1 million a year, Phillips testified that he didn’t bring the contract to the attention of the nonprofit group’s audit committee.
The contract, which involved North working as a host for an NRATV web series, was notable because the position of NRA president is typically unpaid and considered ceremonial.
North, a retired U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel who was at the center of the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal, would step down as president in April 2019, less than a year after accepting the job. His departure from the organization came amid reports that he was battling with Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s chief executive officer, over alleged financial impropriety with the organization’s spending and that he threatened to leak damaging information about LaPierre if he did not resign as CEO.
North was once the co-host of the now-canceled MSNBC political talk show “Equal Time” from 1999 to 2000. MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.
LaPierre would appear to have won the feud with North by maintaining his power, but in the wake, scrutiny grew as New York Attorney General Letitia James brought a lawsuit in 2020 alleging LaPierre, Phillips and two other NRA executives violated nonprofit laws and misused millions of dollars of NRA funds for their personal benefit. John Frazer, the NRA’s corporate secretary and general counsel, is…
Read the full article here