Three dissident board members of the National Rifle Association resigned on Thursday, saying that their confidence in the group’s leadership is “shattered.”
In a letter to NRA president Carolyn Meadows and secretary John Frazier, the three resigning members accused the nonprofit’s leadership of acting “counter to its mission, governing principles, policies, or the law.”
“Over the past several months, there have been numerous, highly-publicized allegations of impropriety leveled against the Association and certain members of its executive leadership team,” the resignation letter reads. “In exercising our oversight responsibilities as Board Members, we have sought information and requested certain actions be taken with respect to these allegations, only to be rebuffed at every turn.”
The letter goes on to say that after attempting to investigate allegations of wrongdoing, the resigning members were “stonewalled, accused of disloyalty, stripped of committee assignments and denied effective counsel necessary to properly discharge our responsibilities as Board members.”
An NRA spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
The NRA has 76 members on its board, including Oliver North, the group’s former president who remains locked in a very public battle with executive vice president Wayne LaPierre.
The three departing board members are gun activist Timothy Knight, motivational speaker Sean Maloney, and NRA fundraiser Esther Schneider.
Last week, the three called for an independent investigation into scam allegations at the multi-million dollar nonprofit gun group. Soldier of Fortune magazine publisher Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown had also demanded an independent probe, but does not appear to have resigned.
The members who resigned had associated themselves with various groups that have been created over the past several months as the NRA appears to have shot itself in the foot through a coup attempt, top-level grifting allegations, and its acrimonious breakup with its longtime ad firm. The new groups aim to withhold funds from the NRA until it cleans itself up.
Read the letter here:
