According to Bloomberg, NRA President Carolyn Meadows called the lawsuit a baseless, premeditated attack on the Second Amendment that was timed to have maximum impact during the election cycle. “It’s a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda,” Meadows said in a statement. “This has been a power grab by a political opportunist—a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta. Our members won’t be intimidated or bullied in their defense of political and constitutional freedom.” According to the Associated Press, Meadows also said that the group was planning to countersue the New York attorney general’s office.

The attorney general alleges that LaPierre spent $500,000 for several trips to the Bahamas via private jet, as well as $1.2 million in various expense reimbursements over four years for expenditures that included gifts for favored friends and vendors; travel expenses for himself and his family; and membership fees at golf clubs, hotels and other member clubs. The CFO, meanwhile, is alleged to have allowed millions of dollars in entertainment and travel expenses incurred by NRA executives to be fraudulently billed to the NRA as disbursements by the NRA’s largest vendor: Ackerman McQueen, an Oklahoma-based advertising and public relations firm. The executive director of general operations is alleged to have a tenure "marked by nepotism"; as one example, he is alleged to have circumvented the NRAs's contracting process to pay $5 million to a consulting company that went on to hire his wife and pay her a $30,000 monthly consulting fee. The general counsel wasn't specifically accused of theft himself, but is alleged to have enabled it through inaction and through certifying false or misleading financial statements.