The National Rifle Association said Friday it is "gratified" that Attorney General Pam Bondi has launched an investigation into whether Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James and the state sued the gun rights advocate solely to violate its First and Second Amendment rights.
"We were gratified to learn of the investigation into AG Letitia James because she also abuses her authority against the NRA," said NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Doug Hamlin in a statement to Newsmax.
When James first ran for office in 2018, she referred to the NRA as a "terrorist organization" and vowed "to investigate their legitimacy." She filed a lawsuit against the group in 2020, seeking to dissolve the organization over allegations of fraud and abuse.
In February 2024, a New York jury found the NRA failed to properly administer charitable funds and violated state laws, determining that former Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre caused $5.4 million in damages and former CFO Woody Phillips caused $2 million in damages. The judgment held that LaPierre must pay $4.2 million and Phillips $2 million.
Bondi has convened a grand jury based upon a federal statute that the Trump administration sees as broadly written, though it has typically been used to investigate police officers accused of violating rights at the state or local level, a source familiar with the situation who requested anonymity told Newsmax on Thursday.
A James spokesperson decried the DOJ's investigation as a "weaponization" of power.
"She maligns us because we advocate for our constitutional freedoms, calling us a ‘terrorist organization,’ " Hamlin said. "She uses her powers as an elected official to try, in her words, to ‘dissolve the organization in its entirety,’ thus silencing the voice of millions of our members. That she now expresses concerns over ‘weaponization’ is the height of hypocrisy – an utter lack of self-awareness at the very least."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.