[David] Dell’Aquila spent an intense year working around the clock, putting questions to the [NRA] chief executive and the board but rarely getting answers back. Employees, he said, began privately coming to him with inside information.
If he has criticisms of LaPierre, he reserves his biggest complaints for the board of directors who have remained overwhelmingly loyal to the NRA leadership despite mounting evidence of alleged malpractice. “Wayne couldn’t have done all this stuff – the trips to the Bahamas, the special security, the suits, the private jets – without the board. They have financial oversight, they can demand documents. They could convene a vote and get Wayne out, so why don’t they?”
Over the past 20 years, the NRA has created a mythology around itself that portrays it as an unassailable, united, unstoppable force at the heart of conservative America. But as the edifice begins to crumble, voices like that of Dell’Aquila – coming from the inside – are finally beginning to be heard.
For his part, he hopes that his class action will prevail and that on the back of it the $64m will be repaid, the current board will be replaced, and that a new NRA will emerge from the ashes. He believes one other thing must happen – LaPierre must be forced out.
“I’m not pro-Wayne, I’m not negative-Wayne. I’m objective Wayne,” he said. “For the good of the NRA – Wayne must go.”
– Ed Pilkington in ‘Wayne must go’ – the staunch NRA supporter out to take down LaPierre