There he goes again...
Jeff Knox expects us to believe that dismissal of the motions to dissolve NRA and to place a monitor to oversee NRA are not substantive results, when those motions were the absolute substance of the lawsuit. He is such a gaslighter!
Substantive, but 5 years late!
Once again Jeff Knox is wildly speculating and misrepresenting the facts. Regarding Ollie North, Jeff leaves out the fact that North was employed (mega bucks salary) by Ackerman McQueen while he was criticizing the billing of NRA lawyers who were suing Ackerman McQueen. Don't you see a big problem of credibility there?
And Seth leaves out the fact that Wayne personally recruited Ollie for the presidency and personally helped to negotiate Ollie's contract with Ackerman McQueen.
Ollie was working for FOX News, and whether contractually or on a conflict of interest basis, could not serve as President of NRA while working for FOX. Ollie also needed to maintain health insurance for his ailing wife (who, sadly, recently passed away), so he needed to be an employee on a company policy. Wayne solved these issues by arranging for Ollie to be an employee of Ackerman McQueen, producing programs for NRA TV, at a salary comparable with what he was being paid at FOX.
LaPierre and NRA later claimed NRA hadn't known about North's contract with Ack-Mac, and was refusing to provide NRA with a copy of the contract, yet I have seen emails between North's lawyer and John Frazer, agreeing to meet at NRA HQ for NRA to go over the details of the contract.
Was North conflicted?
I have no idea. I've personally always found him to be a very straightforward, stand-up guy. He was asking the Board to investigate what appeared to be unreasonably high bills from Brewer -- not calling for them to be fired or for the suit against Ack-Mac to be dismissed, just for the Board to audit the bills.
That seemed very reasonable to me.
Then Jeff claims that the NY lawsuit could have been avoided. But he is not a lawyer and gives no explanation how he knows this. More speculating.
Yes, it's pure speculation.
Had the Board come together after the 2019 Members' Meeting (or before), and suspended or replaced Wayne LaPierre and anyone else involved in the financial chicanery, and immediately started backing out of all questionable contracts and payments, there would have been little to nothing for Letitia James to sue NRA about.
He wants you to believe that Letitia James could have been talked out of suing NRA! Really, after what she did to Trump, Jeff expects us to believe she would have backed off. Ridiculous.
It's not a matter of talking Letitia James out of suing NRA, it's a matter of taking away the basis of her suit.
Then Jeff grossly exaggerates when he says: "After the suit was filed, it didn't take long for the judge to take dissolution off the table". But it took almost two years before the Judge dismissed the motion for dissolution. That was a long time. Jeff exaggerates again.
Well, you got me there... It did take a while between when the suit was filed and when the judge dismissed "the corporate death penalty," but let's remember that the suit was suspended for the entire time that the NRA was in bankruptcy court.
Within the context of the actual NY suit, the judge's decision to take dissolution off the table did indeed come in pretty short order after the suit was filed, within the timeline of that case.
Take out the bankruptcy and the new charges from James that came out of the bankruptcy testimony, and the dismissal of the dissolution request actually happened pretty early in the process.
The Knox says: "and at that point, again, I believe the NRA could have gotten the mess settled and done with in short order" but he doesn't say how this could have been done. No facts, no explanation.
BY FIRING LaPierre and taking steps to correct and reverse the corrupt things LaPierre and company had done!
At no point in the almost 5 years of the trial, did the NRA or its attorneys ever approach the NY AG with any sort of settlement proposal. Instead, they reelected LaPierre each year, and kept his most ardent supporters in every key position on the Board.
And then incredibly Jeff Knox states: "Instead, they kept fighting, filed for bankruptcy…"
Here Jeff is losing it, this is totally false. NRA absolutely did not file for bankruptcy after the Judge dismissed the AG's motion for dissolution of NRA.
Got me again! Mia culpa! NRA did in fact file for bankruptcy before the judge issued that order... How misleading of me!
Here is the problem with Jeff, he just blurts out whatever comes to mind without really considering the truthfulness of what he is saying. He wildly speculates without any explanation and he expects us to believe him.
Yes, I just "blurt," and occasionally get some events crisscrossed or out of order, which is clearly the same as intentionally lying... I guess?
Then Jeff Blames NRA for the legal bills. But he neglects to mention that the NY AG also cost Trump about the same amount in legal bills. Is Jeff going to tell us that Trump could have also gotten out of his lawsuit as well? Is jeff going to blame Trumps lawyers for charging too much?
Why would I "mention" Donald Trump's legal bills? We're talking about the NRA, not Trump.
I have said from the beginning that Letitia James' attacks on the NRA were politically motivated. That James is a devious political animal looking for a feather in her cap at NRA's expense.
BUT... And this is a big Tish James-size BUT... Wayne LaPierre and the NRA Board handed her everything she needed to charge corruption and malfeasance, on a golden platter. Had NRA been squeaky clean, or even clearly in the process of becoming squeaky clean, by removing LaPierre, reworking contracts, and thoroughly cleaning house, the suit would have gone nowhere, even if James had insisted on pursuing it.
I believe that if the NRA Board had done what they should have done, and what I called on them to do back in 2019 -- seriously cleaning house -- Tish James very likely would have declared victory and walked away.
I would have hated allowing her to do that, but it would have been better than having NRA dragged through the mud for 5 years with our dirty laundry at the top of the flag pole.
Bottom line: most of what Jeff says is speculation and misrepresentation and bloviating and gaslighting. He has no credibility.
Of course there's a lot of speculation in my comments and my past articles. That's the nature of predictions and after action reviews. I think it's worth noting that I have been a Life Member of NRA, deeply involved in the inner workings of the Association for over 40 years, and that anyone can go back and look at my articles over the years and see that my tune hasn't changed and my predictions have been surprisingly accurate.
The other point I'd like to address is Seth's repeated declarations that his candidates Fixed Everything as soon as the corruption was detected... Yes, they absolutely did a lot of policy revisions and changes, but they were absolutely intransigent when it came to addressing the people involved. They didn't fire Wayne LaPierre or Josh Powell or Millie Hallow. They didn't file suit against Woodie Phillips or any of the others for their "excess benefits," and they didn't hold accountable the members of the Board who were tasked with detecting, preventing, and correcting all of this stuff.
Charles Cotton and David Coy were Chair and Vice Chair of the Audit Committee and member and Chair of the Finance Committee for over 20 years leading up to this crisis, and what did the Board do? They made them President and Vice President of the Association, and kept them in their committee assignments!!!
Personnel is policy. You can change policies all you want, but if you leave the same people in charge of executing those policies, you'll always get the same results.
I really hope we're done with this thread, as I'm getting tired of typing.
Thanks guys.
Jeff
