New York’s Democrat Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday that her office has filed a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association and its leadership, including Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, looking to dissolve the organization.
James accused the organization of having "a culture of self-dealing," taking millions of dollars for personal use and granting contracts that benefited leaders' family and associates. Ms. James, a Democrat, made targeting the NRA a platform of her campaign during the 2018 election cycle.
The lawsuit raises issues that have been aired about the NRA’s leadership, and been rebutted by the organization before – so why attack the leadership of the Nation’s largest Second Amendment rights organization now?
Well, one reason is that the presidential election is only about 90-days away, with control of the White House, House and Senate hanging in the balance, and the NRA has strongly endorsed President Trump for reelection.
In 2016 the NRA spent over $30 million in support of Donald Trump’s candidacy — or more than its combined spending in all races during the 2008 and 2012 presidential election cycles.
Another reason is to continue the New York Democrats’ campaign of draining the NRA of the resources it needs to perform its core mission of defending Second Amendment and training gun owners in the safe and effective use of firearms. Instead of lobbying against gun grabbing legislation and inculcating a love for the shooting sports in a new generation of firearms owners the NRA will be spending its time and financial resources in inhospitable New York state courtrooms.
As Professor Jonathan Turley observed in a series of tweets, “Previously, James declared the NRA a ‘terrorist organization.’ It is hard not to see this as a political agenda in search of a legal rationale.”
As Prof. Turley pointed out, “It is also a way to dismiss opposing views as extremism with no need to listen, let alone respond. With the escalation of such rhetoric, millions of Americans are being portrayed as terrorists – a trend that robs the term of any real meaning. Yet, numerous officials, including the Board of Supervisors, in San Francisco supported the ridiculous resolution declaring the NRA to be a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ and, by extension, its five million members domestic terrorists. It is not enough to disagree over the meaning of an individual right, the other side must now be little better than ISIS for disagreeing with you.”
The National Rifle Association is fighting back against a lawsuit filed Thursday by New York’s attorney general by submitting its own civil suit against the state official, accusing her of defamation and violating its rights to free speech.
The NRA’s lawsuit was filed in the federal court of New York and alleges Attorney General Letitia James “made the political prosecution of the NRA a central campaign theme” when she was running for the AG’s office in 2018, and has not treated the association fairly since. “Despite hopes that playing by the rules would procure a just outcome, the NRA has not been treated fairly by James’s office,” the 19-page suit states. “The New York Democratic Party political machine seeks to harass, defund, and dismantle the NRA because of what it believes and what it says.”
The NRA’s suit makes a great point – charges of excessive compensation and self-dealing could fairly be laid against many Far Left groups and individuals that have made their executive “community organizers” rich while they pursue ephemeral “social justice” causes and political campaigns.
Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN-5) comes quickly to mind as an example of a serial liar, self-dealer and lawbreaker who has escaped any investigation, let alone prosecution.
So, taking a queue from Professor Turley, who asked via Twitter, what if a Republican Attorney General launched the same kind of campaign against Planned Parenthood that New York Attorney General Letitia James has launched against the NRA? We have a suggestion – a principled conservative Republican Attorney General in a fairly Red State, let’s say Texas or Indiana or Florida, should launch an investigation of Planned Parenthood, not just for excessive compensation of executives and self-dealing, but for facilitating murder and trafficking in human body parts. Then let’s make sure that conservative AG files the lawsuit to dissolve Planned Parenthood before it can spend the $45 million the organization said it would spend ahead of the 2020 elections.
2020 Election
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excessive executive compensation
free speech
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human body part trafficking
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New York Attorney General Letitia James
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Wayne LaPierre