Plans for Luxury Mansion for NRA Boss

Documents indicate that the National Rifle Association planned to purchase a luxury mansion in the Dallas area last year for the use of chief executive Wayne LaPierre, according to two people familiar with the records. The discussions about the roughly $6 million purchase, which was not completed, are now under scrutiny by New York investigators. The transaction was slated to be made through a corporate entity that received a wire of tens of thousands of dollars from the NRA in 2018, according to the people. The New York attorney general's office is now examining the plan for an NRA-financed mansion as part of its ongoing investigation into the gun lobby's tax-exempt status, in which it has subpoenaed the group's financial records, the people said. A spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James declined to comment. The origins of the idea to buy the mansion, its proposed purpose and the reason the deal never went through are now being fiercely disputed by the NRA and its longtime ad firm, Ackerman McQueen, which are locked in a bitter legal fight. Allies of Ackerman McQueen, which was involved in the discussions, said top officials there were alarmed by the proposal. But NRA officials said that the real estate purchase was suggested in early 2018 by Ackerman McQueen as an investment that would be led by the ad firm's top executives - and that it was ultimately rejected by top NRA leaders.