The National Rifle Association slashed funding for key programs as its legal spending skyrocketed in 2018, according to a report in the Washington Post.
The article is based on the NRA’s 2018 financial report, which has not yet been publicly released but was supplied to board members in April.
The article fills out the other half of a picture first painted by the right-leaning Washington Free Beacon, which revealed that the NRA saw an increase in $42 million in membership dues from 2017.
The resulting image is of an NRA that experienced a bump in revenue in 2018, accompanied by vast increases in spending on legal expenses and overhead.
The financial statements record a leap in legal fees from $12.9 million in 2017 to $33.5 million in 2018, along with a jump in legal administrative expenses over the same timeframe from $4.6 million to $21.9 million.
The gun group is under investigation by New York State Attorney General Letitia James amid allegations of unregulated political spending and potential self-dealing by the non-profit’s directors. It also found itself embroiled in two separate lawsuits last year over an extremely controversial insurance policy it offers called Carry Guard.
The documents reportedly show that the NRA has cut funding for core activities like its firearms training programs from $42.6 million in 2017 to $32.7 million in 2018.
The group has gone to great lengths in recent weeks to counter reports that it is foundering. The front page of its website heralds an open letter from a cohort of the non-profit’s board members, telling NRA members that “our financial house is in order – we aren’t going away.”
Read the Washington Post report here.
