A travel consultant who testified in the National Rifle Association’s bankruptcy case said Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre instructed her to omit certain flight stops from invoices she sent to the gun-rights group for Mr. LaPierre’s private-jet travel, a disclosure NRA attorneys are challenging to keep out of the court record.
The travel consultant testified, in a videotape deposition played in bankruptcy court Thursday, that certain invoices she sent the NRA omitted stops in Nebraska and the Bahamas, at Mr. LaPierre’s request. Some of Mr. LaPierre’s relatives who were frequent travelers on NRA-paid private jets live in Nebraska.
The NRA chief previously testified he frequently traveled to the Bahamas to stay for free on a 108-foot yacht in the Bahamas with family members, provided by an NRA vendor, for security reasons.
The testimony that alleged Mr. LaPierre sought to hide certain private-jet stops from the NRA’s own accountants could be evidence he knew what he was doing was wrong and was deliberately concealing it, legal specialists said.
“If true, this seems like a clear documented instance of knowing misuse of NRA assets and concealing that abuse,” said Elizabeth Kingsley, a Washington nonprofit-law attorney.
