The NRA is suing the advertising firm that it has worked with for decades–again. This time: for allegedly leaking NRA information to reporters. The complaint, filed late Wednesday afternoon in Virginia Circuit Court against advertising firm Ackerman McQueen, alleges that the firm shared sensitive information with outsiders in an effort “to tarnish and ultimately destroy the public image of the NRA and its senior leadership.”
The litigation also alleges that the advertising firm tried to foment “a (failed) executive coup” in an effort to end inquiries into its business practices.
“Over the past year, even as it withheld important documents and information from the NRA, AMc [Ackerman McQueen] readily shared snippets of confidential and proprietary materials with hostile third parties, including the news media–in a series of sordid, out-of-context ‘leaks’ engineered by AMc to harm its client,” the complaint reads.
Previous litigation has already pitted the NRA against Ackerman McQueen, an advertising firm which has worked for the gun group for more than three decades. A lawsuit first filed on April 12 and updated a few days before the NRA’s annual meeting doesn’t ask for any money. Instead, it demands that Ackerman McQueen turn over information about its bookkeeping practices. The initial complaint also alleged that Ackerman McQueen used bad information to push the NRA to hire it to start NRATV–the internet-TV network that has drawn significant controversy.
The other lawsuit also claimed that Oliver North, who was deposed as the group’s president just days after the filing came out, deceived the NRA about his relationship with the advertising firm. According to the suit, North neglected to reveal to the NRA that the advertising firm both hired him on salary and paid him on contract for work he did for NRATV. It wasn’t the only drama in the lead-up to the meeting; shortly before the internal NRA fight boiled over at the group’s annual meeting in Indianapolis last month, which pitted NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre against North. LaPierre emerged victorious and North left early.
This is a developing story and will be updated.