The former Chief of Staff of National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre said in an exclusive ABC News interview that members “should be horrified by what I saw inside of the NRA” regarding self-dealing and corruption within the organization.
Joshua Powell said that the lawsuit filed by the New York State Attorney General regarding corruption with the conservative non-profit trade association is “the tip of the iceberg” of massive wrongdoing by the NRA.
The self-described “No. 2 guy” at the NRA, Powell was one of the defendants named in the New York State lawsuit. Powell says he’s a strong supporter of 2nd Amendment rights and is an ardent gun collector and enthusiast.
However, Powell paints a picture of corruption and greed that ultimately led him to become disillusioned with the organization and particularly the leadership of LaPierre and the CEO’s misuse of membership fees.
LaPierre, Powell and two other NRA executives have been accused in the New York State lawsuit of funnelling tens of millions of dollars into their own pockets. The lawsuit looks to de-charter the NRA as a non-profit organization and bar its leadership from serving in leadership positions of nonprofits in the future.
Powell has a new book coming out in which he describes LaPierre’s self-dealing, including purchasing a mansion for himself and his wife as well as paying for family vacations to Caribbean islands and African safaris.
“In spite of Wayne’s attempts to paint the other side as the ‘Elites,’ he himself was the epitome of elitism,” Powell writes, “robbing every $45-dues-paying member to cover the costs of his own extravagance and his shameful mismanagement of a multi-hundred-million-dollar association.”