Trial to Decide N.R.A.’s Financial Future Begins in Manhattan

The former board president of the National Rifle Association spent Monday on a witness stand trying to ward off an effort by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, to have an outside monitor appointed to oversee the gun group.

Ms. James, who was in the Manhattan courtroom, is seeking to give oversight of the N.R.A. to a court-appointed official for three years, a step the group vehemently opposes. Five months ago, after an earlier phase of the civil trial, Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A.’s longtime chief executive, was found liable for misspending $5.4 million of its money. Charles Cotton, who was N.R.A. president until May, was the first witness as the second phase of the trial began.

Ms. James had filed a lawsuit in 2020 against the N.R.A. amid a corruption scandal that upended the association and led to infighting within its highest ranks; its revenue and membership have also plummeted after a half-decade of scandal. New York has special jurisdiction over the N.R.A. since it was founded in New York more than 150 years ago.

Mr. Cotton, in his testimony Monday, conceded that the case has hampered the N.R.A.’s ability to recruit new leaders.

“We’re not going to attract the Lee Iacoccas while this lawsuit is hanging over our head,” he said, referring to the former Chrysler executive who was a corporate icon of the 1980s.

During his testimony, an internal document was highlighted that underscored internal tensions in the organization. The N.R.A.’s audit committee, which Mr. Cotton still leads, has “reviewed and discussed” the potential for a lawsuit from one of the group’s most formidable former lobbyists amid a financial dispute, according to the document.