The National Rifle Association at one point agreed to purchase a $6 million mansion in Dallas, Texas for its CEO, Wayne LaPierre, which was later canceled, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Journal reviewed a copy of a document signed by a top NRA executive agreeing to own 99% of a company that formed to buy the house, and the NRA agreed to supply $6.5 million to the company being formed. Although the deal was eventually called off, the NRA and advertising agency Ackerman McQueen Inc., which helped facilitate the deal as part of its then-longtime relationship with the NRA, both admit the plan was formed following the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, when LaPierre became concerned for his safety.
"Not a cent of NRA money was ultimately spent," an outside attorney for the NRA, William A. Brewer III, told the Journal last week. However, the Journal reported Monday the organization sent a check for $70,000 in May 2018 to a company that was formed to buy the house. The check was later returned.
"As we have said repeatedly, neither Mr. LaPierre nor the Board ever formally considered, much less approved, an investment in the house in question or the other properties shown by Ackerman McQueen's real estate agent," an NRA spokesperson said in a statement.