The National Rifle Association's (NRA) former president Oliver North has been credibly accused of double-billing the gun lobby for his services.
The NRA's current CEO Wayne LaPierre has been credibly accused of charging the lobby for hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury suits, trips, and a lavish lifestyle.
Now, it appears the NRA is also getting screwed by the legal counsel they hired to navigate the raging dumpster fire the lobby is burning in.
The NRA's chief outside counsel, Bill Brewer, has reportedly billed the lobby over $24 million in less than a year (about $100,000 per day) according to documents reviewed by the Daily Beast.
“The Brewer invoices are draining NRA cash at mindboggling speed,” [Oliver North] and [NRA board member Richard Childress] wrote, adding that the fees “pose an existential threat to the financial stability of the NRA." [...]
The memo says Brewer charged the NRA $24,324,290 since they engaged him last year, and that some of that had been reimbursed as part of a settlement of litigation against an insurance company—leaving the NRA to pay $18.5 million.
North and Childress estimated that at the current rate, the NRA is racking up nearly $100,000 in legal bills every day—an eye-popping number.
“$97,000+ a day is a stunning amount of money for any organization to pay,” they wrote. “It cries for an outside, independent review.”
I understand that quality legal representation is expensive, but holy shit.
For perspective, this is about 5 times as much as money as CEO Wayne LaPierre is paid each year.