(RepublicanInformer.com)- Chuck Schumer is taking direct aim at gun rights with a new ridiculous demand for an investigation into the National Rifle Association.
On Sunday, the Senate Majority Leader said the Department of Justice should investigate the NRA for, of all things, bankruptcy fraud. The senator claims the NRA is financially stable but has abused the bankruptcy system when it sought protection.
The NRA was sued in New York, with the lawsuit trying to put the organization out of business. Leaders of the organization said they filed for bankruptcy so they could change the state it was incorporated in from New York to Texas.
In May, their bankruptcy case was rejected by a judge, though, who ruled that the NRA didn’t act in good faith. Leaders from the NRA admitted that the organization was “in its strongest financial condition in years,” and sought bankruptcy just to change incorporation states.
Schumer has latched onto that statement, plus the fact that the NRA is spending heavily on advertising critical of gun control measures as reasons why their bankruptcy filing was a sham. The senator also cited the fact that the NRA has lobbied against David Chipman, a lobbyist for gun control, as the nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In a reference to Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, Schumer said:
“[The NRA] recently told the judicial branch of government that they are bankrupt after the lawsuit by Tish James, and at the same time, they’re saying they’re bankrupt, they’re spending millions of dollars on ads to stop universal background checks. That demands an investigation by the Justice Department.”
James filed a lawsuit against the NRA in 2020, alleging that top executives of the organization illegally diverted millions of dollars for questionable expenditures such as supplying their associates with no-show contracts and personal trips.
Ultimately, the Democratic AG wanted a judge to dissolve the NRA completely. The lawsuit is still pending.
In January of this year, the NRA then filed for bankruptcy protection. However, Harlin Hale, the judge in the case, ruled that the case appeared:
“Less like a traditional bankruptcy case in which a debtor is faced with financial difficulties or a judgment that it cannot satisfy and more like cases in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme.”
Schumer went on the attack this weekend, saying the NRA ran a $250,000 TV ad campaign that encouraged people to call West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to tell him to reject the confirmation of Chipman as head of the ATF.
As Schumer claimed:
“How can you say you’re bankrupt at the same time you have millions of dollars to spend on ads throughout the country trying to prevent universal background checks, fundraising and other things that will stop the killings on the streets? The bottom line is the NRA shot itself in the foot when they declared bankruptcy and still have millions of dollars.”
