The tax-exempt National Rifle Association planned last year to buy a $6 million mansion in Texas for its chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Citing “a person familiar with the plans,” the Post describes the 10,000-square-foot home as resembling a French chateau, on an estate “with lakefront and golf course views” in a gated community northwest of Dallas.
LaPierre’s reason for seeking such a luxurious residence had more than a whiff of irony.
According to the Post’s sources, LaPierre “told associates he was worried about being targeted and needed a more secure place to live after 17 people were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School” early last year in Parkland FL.
LaPierre and his wife were said to be “intensely involved in the selection of the property, rejecting an upscale high rise in Dallas with numerous security features.”
“The transaction was slated to be made through a corporate entity that received a $70,000 wire from the NRA in 2018,” according to sources the Post describes as “two people familiar with the records.”
“The New York attorney general’s office is now examining the plan for an NRA-financed mansion as part of its ongoing investigation into the gun lobby’s tax-exempt status, in which it has subpoenaed the group’s financial records,” those sources told the Post.
The NRA, officially a non-profit organization, never followed through on the home-purchase plan, which apparently was linked to the group’s bitter split with Ackerman McQueen, its long-time advertising company.
“In a statement late Tuesday night, Ackerman McQueen said LaPierre had sought the ad firm’s assistance with the real estate transaction, a proposal it said alarmed company officials,” the Post says. It quoted the ad company’s statement as saying “Actions in this regard led to Ackerman McQueen’s loss of faith in Mr. LaPierre’s decision-making.”
The NRA says the opposite is true.
The Post quotes NRA officials as saying “the real estate purchase was suggested in early 2018 by Ackerman McQueen as an investment that would be managed by the ad firm’s top executives — and that it was ultimately rejected by top NRA leaders,” including LaPierre.
Despite the reported wire transfer, a lawyer for the NRA insists that “not a cent” of the group’s money was actually spent on the proposed purchase.
The revelations about the Texas mansion come as the gun-rights group struggles to deal with “allegations of lavish spending by top executives,” including more than half a million dollars for private jet travel for LaPierre, like “a trip to the Bahamas with his wife after the Sandy Hook shooting,” the Post says.
Here’s a link to the house, and it appears to still be available.
