A jury is holding a former National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO liable for civil corruption. 

The former CEO, according to the Daily Caller, is Wayne LaPierre.

LaPierre has now found himself on the wrong side of a $5.4 million ruling.

The Daily Caller further reports that "the jury also ruled against former NRA Treasurer Woody Phillips and current NRA Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer, but did not find them liable financially."

What's going on?

The lawsuit was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D).

Fox News reports:

James brought the lawsuit in 2020 and named the NRA, LaPierre, former CFO Wilson "Woody" Philips, and general counsel John Frazer as defendants. The attorney general’s office argued the executives used millions in company funds on luxury personal purchases and trips, including hundreds of thousands of dollars on LaPierre’s trips to the Bahamas, according to the AG’s office.

The jury, after five days of deliberation, agreed.

The total judgment is $5.4 million, but LaPierre has already repaid the organization about $1 million.

The outstanding total is said to be around $4.3 million.

More weaponization of the law?

The NRA is claiming that this is yet another example of James weaponizing the law against her political opponents.

Fox News reports:

The NRA, however, has long said the case was politically motivated by an attorney general who campaigned for the office by vowing to investigate and take on the group. James was elected to office in November 2018 and publicly slammed the NRA in the lead-up to her becoming New York’s chief law officer. While on the campaign trail, James called the group "an organ of deadly propaganda" and vowed to investigate whether the NRA could keep its charity status.

James has gone so far as to call the NRA "a terrorist organization" and "a criminal enterprise." She has even tried to break up the NRA with a dissolution lawsuit, but that effort was blocked.

In closing arguments, Kent Correll, LaPierre's attorney, attempted to highlight James' political motivation, saying, "This is a story made up by a person with an agenda that wanted him off the field." The jury, however, sided with James anyway.

This, of course, is not the first time that James has been accused of weaponizing the law against her political opponents. James has also been accused of doing so against former President Donald Trump, most infamously in the civil fraud case, where a judge has ordered Trump to fork over $450 million.