NRA Spars With N.Y. AG Over Subpoena of Its Former Ad Agency

(Bloomberg) -- The National Rifle Association and the New York attorney general's office squared off in a Manhattan court over whether the gun-rights organization has the power to prevent state investigators from seeing documents subpoenaed from its former advertising agency.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the NRA's nonprofit status after a leadership clash at the organization led to internal allegations of self-dealing, a claim the NRA has denied.

At a hearing Thursday, a lawyer for James argued the NRA is illegally threatening to sue the ad agency, Ackerman McQueen, if it doesn't let the organization review documents before they're handed over to the state.

The claim “is an attempt to allow the NRA, through contractual means, to get itself a seat at the conference table in our office” during the investigation, John Olesky, a lawyer for New York, told the judge.

The NRA argues that its longtime relationship with Ackerman McQueen was so unique that it has attorney-client privilege over the agency's documents. The gun-rights group also said its First Amendment rights could be violated if New York gets access to lists of the group's members or donors.

The relationship between the NRA and the ad agency was “far beyond the parameters of a normal client-publicist relationship,” Sarah Rogers, the NRA's attorney, said at the hearing.

By way of example, Rogers said, Ackerman McQueen employees ran the NRA website and regularly posted copy amounting to legal advice on the Second Amendment. And one of the NRA's most recognizable supporters, spokeswoman Dana Loesch, was an Ackerman McQueen staffer, Rogers said.

Ackerman McQueen, the brains behind NRATV, has said it wants to comply with the subpoena but fears being sued over its nondisclosure agreement with its former client. The NRA had a bitter split with the ad agency in a billing dispute tied to the internal clash at the NRA.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Melissa Crane said she'd rule later on the state's request for an order forcing compliance with the subpoena, which was sent to Ackerman McQueen in July.

The NRA has repeatedly knocked the New York probe as a politically motivated outcropping of the state's anti-gun policies.

“In practical terms, the attorney general - in her zeal to attack the NRA - seeks to conduct a secret investigation in a situation never intended by the legislature or countenanced by any court,” NRA attorney William A. Brewer said in a statement. “The NRA must protect its privileges and its members' confidential information.”

The case is National Rifle Association of America v. James, 158019/2019, New York State Supreme Court, New York County.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Steve Stroth, Joe Schneider

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.