NRA Agrees to a Dozen Reforms in Settlement With New York State Attorney General

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and the New York attorney general’s office have agreed to more than a dozen reforms the NRA must implement and to two former NRA officials paying more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit brought in 2020.

Both sides hailed the settlement as vindication of their respective positions.

The reforms are a result of the trial’s second phase, which began on July 15. At that time, lawyers for the state and the NRA were ordered to propose plans for the organization’s future.

The settlement orders the NRA to hire a chief compliance officer (CCO) and a consultant to work with the CCO. The consultant will advise the CCO and staff and make recommendations to the board.

The consultant must be agreed upon by the NRA and the attorney general and approved by the court. The consultant cannot be anyone who testified on the NRA’s behalf during the trial.

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Under the terms of the settlement, the NRA must pay the CCO two years of salary if he or she is fired without cause or resigns for good reason. This is to protect the CCO from retaliation.

Other reforms were ordered to focus on providing information to NRA officials, board members, and the membership. The settlement calls for a secure electronic portal for board members to access NRA bylaws, audit reports, budgets, and other documents.

The settlement also requires NRA management to present financial reports before each annual meeting, starting in April 2025 and continuing for at least five years, unless the board of directors decides to extend the practice.

In addition, each year, the executive vice president and treasurer must certify to the board that the NRA’s IRS and New York state tax forms accurately reflect the organization’s financial condition.

The settlement also mandates that potential board members provide specific information on their qualifications, possible conflicts of interest, and other data. They must also be willing to undergo a background check.

The NRA must continue to hire an independent auditor for at least the next three years and make the auditor’s opinion available to the membership each year.

The settlement makes the audit committee a committee of the board of directors and sets guidelines for committee members. According to James, this is because previous audit committees were made up of “loyalists to LaPierre.”

No one who served on the audit committee from 2014 to 2022—the years the violations occurred—may serve again.

In February, LaPierre, who resigned as CEO in January, was ordered to pay $4.35 million in damages. He was also banned from working with the NRA or any organization controlled by it until July 28, 2034.

Former Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Wilson “Woody” Phillips was ordered to pay $2 million in restitution, at that time.

Former chief of staff and Executive Director of General Operations Josh Powell and corporate secretary and general counsel John Frazer were codefendants.

The jury found no cause to remove Frazer. Phillips was ordered to pay $2 million in restitution. Powell agreed to testify for the state, pay $100,000 in restitution, and never work with nonprofits again.

NRA officials said the settlement is the next step in reforms they have already begun. In their statement released in the wake of the decision, they said the NRA is ready to move on.

James filed the civil lawsuit on Aug. 6, 2020, based on a 2019 investigation by her office. NRA officials had called the lawsuit nothing more than a political attack designed to dissolve the organization.

In March 2022, Manhattan Judge Joel M. Cohen ruled that even if all of the allegations were accurate, they were not enough to dissolve the NRA. At that time, he said dissolution could infringe on the First Amendment rights of millions of NRA members.