The National Rifle Association reportedly paid for private jets to be rerouted through Nebraska to pick up family members of embattled CEO Wayne LaPierre.
One instance occurred in April 2017, when the 69-year-old LaPierre and his wife, Susan LaPierre, were returning to Washington, D.C., from a NASCAR race in Texas. According to the Wall Street Journal, which obtained travel itineraries and aviation records, the jet took a 500-mile detour to Grand Island, Nebraska, “to pick up Colleen” and her daughter.
The itinerary item appears to be a reference to Colleen Sterner, the niece of Susan LaPierre who lives in Nebraska and works in a low-level capacity fundraising for the NRA’s Women’s Leadership Forum, where she is paid about $70,000.
The cost of the single detour to Nebraska would be about $5,000, according to two charter jet operators.
Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the nonprofit gun rights group, said that Sterner typically flies commercial as part of her job but added that “she has occasionally traveled via private aircraft with NRA officials and vendors in connection with her professional responsibilities. On occasion, she has been transported to her area of residence in connection with such travel.”
Federal Aviation Administration records for a charter operator often used by the LaPierres reportedly show at least seven flights since 2016 that stopped at airports in central Nebraska and matched the itineraries or timing of NRA events that the LaPierres attended.
Atlanta attorney Brinkley Dickerson, who works with companies on compliance matters regarding private aircraft, said it could be argued the trips have a business purpose because LaPierre’s niece is an NRA employee, but Dickerson said if he were a member of the organization he would “certainly be really pissed off.”
The news about the private jets comes at a time of ongoing internal strife within the NRA. A number of board members have resigned in the wake of scrutiny over how LaPierre has spent the organization’s money.
LaPierre, who has served as CEO since 1991, reportedly looked to have the nonprofit organization buy him a $6 million mansion in Texas after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The LaPierres often fly on private jets and stay in lavish hotels when conducting company business. During the April 2017 trip to Texas, the couple stayed in a Premier Villa at the Dallas Four Seasons for three nights, lodging that cost $645 per night for the first two nights and the third night free.
[Related: Fox News host to NRA head: You are ‘an odious little grifter’]
