The ascendancy of William Brewer and his law firm at the NRA is almost complete. Danny Hakim of the New York Times reported that Charles Cooper of Cooper and Kirk had been dismissed as an outside counsel to the NRA. Cooper and his firm had handled much of the NRA's lawsuits in the past number of years.
Now Mr. LaPierre is continuing to purge opponents. On Thursday, the N.R.A. dismissed its longtime outside counsel, Charles J. Cooper, the chairman of the Washington law firm Cooper & Kirk, people with knowledge of the decision said. A second outside counsel and a top in-house counsel resigned. The departures come after an internal inquiry showed that the lawyers were involved in an effort to undermine Mr. LaPierre.From what I have gathered from multiple sources, the "internal inquiry" consists of Josh Powell and William Brewer dragging people into a room and interrogating them for hours on end. If your inquiry team consists of a business failure and an attorney under an ethical cloud the results will be whatever is most likely to feed Wayne LaPierre's paranoid fantasy of the day.
But as the informercial says, wait! It gets better.
The N.R.A. is also considering halting payments to its former second in command, Christopher Cox, who left in June but is still on the payroll, said the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal matters.The article continues with the assertion that Cooper, Cox, and others were secretly working with AckMac as part of the supposed coup to depose Wayne. Hakim in his story says he is working with documents that have come to light as a result of the NRA's lawsuit against Oliver North. If I had to hazzard a guess, I'd say the documents came from Brewer and his firm as they seem to have Hakim on speed dial.
Hakim concludes his story by writing (and including a link to my blog's namesake):
The unraveling of lawyers, guns and money coincides with the departures of half a dozen board members in recent weeks. But Mr. LaPierre remains center stage, as polarizing as ever.Given the White House's backtracking from what Wayne reported of his conversation with President Trump, I'd question Rathner's last statement. He might have the juice to purge his supposed enemies within the NRA but I sincerely doubt his political effectiveness on the national scene anymore.
“Donald Trump and Wayne LaPierre are made for each other,” said Peter Ambler, executive director of Giffords, the gun control group started by former Representative Gabrielle Giffords. He called them “mirror images” engulfed in “allegations of corruption and mismanagement.”
But Todd Rathner, a member of the N.R.A.’s board, said, “Wayne is leading and proving that he has the political juice to get the job done.”
It is likely that the two law suits that the NRA brought against Ack-Mac were never intended to be tried. It is likely that those law suits had nothing to do with obtaining justification for Ack-Mac’s billing or for making any movement toward “greater transparency.” Likely, they were instigated by Brewer for the sole purpose of provoking a breach between NRA and Ack-Mac. He succeeded.
ReplyDeleteNow, Brewer, whose firm touts its "public relations” capabilities, has effectively supplanted Ack-Mac.
Similarly, it is likely that NRA’s law suit against Oliver North was never intended to be tried. It is likely that Brewer’s purpose was solely to pre-empt the media coverage by reinforcing the “extortion” narrative to discredit North. Brewer has been partially successful at that, also.
Once discovery begins in earnest, Brewer's client is both vulnerable and sensitive, and each unwelcome disclosure will add more pain. Brewer will settle or lose. And against the New York AG, NRA has no defense except delay.
Ultimately, Brewer himself may be summoned before a grand jury.
NRA has trashed the Times for their reporting in the past. Why would they trust them now to get "the truth" out about what has been going on? Why not FoxNews, USA Today or any other media outlet know to be more fair on 2A issues?
ReplyDeleteSo sad that Wayne's ego is gong to take down the entire NRA after all the years we've fought to gain power against the anti-gun lobby.
ReplyDeleteYep, the gloves are coming off, and I don't see this ending well, not at all.
ReplyDelete