Ex-N.R.A. Chief Wayne LaPierre Found Liable for Financial Misconduct

In a sweeping rebuke of the National Rifle Association, the nation’s most prominent gun rights group, a Manhattan jury ruled on Friday that N.R.A. leaders had engaged in a pattern of financial misconduct and corruption.

The jury, after a week of deliberations, found that the group’s former leader, Wayne LaPierre, had used N.R.A. funds to pay for personal expenses, including vacations, luxury flights for his relatives and rides on superyachts. Jurors found that he misspent $5.4 million, some of which he has repaid.

The trial, in the courtroom of Justice Joel M. Cohen of State Supreme Court stemmed from a lawsuit brought in 2020 by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.The N.R.A., which