One way to understand the culture of self-dealing greed and corruption in place at the National

Rifle Association is through the story of Josh Powell.

Powell is a fascinating character in part because he also just seemingly came out of nowhere.

This is Mike's piece, a reporter at the trace, a publication that covers the gun industry.

Mike was surprised by Powell's rapid ascent at the NRA.

Just three years ago, Powell was the relatively unknown chief of staff for Wayne LaPierre,

the NRA's executive vice president.

Then all of a sudden, in 2017, he took over the post of executive director of general

operations.

And to be clear, in the order of succession, should something happen to the NRA's top

official Wayne LaPierre, he would be the one who would be his like emergency replacement.

Mike tried to figure out where Powell had come from.

Mike turns out he did not exactly bring a stellar management record to the organization.

And I'd first started to look into him in 2018, Powell.

That is, it was sort of shocked to discover that before coming to the NRA, he ran to clothing

catalogs.

Disastrously, he had been sued over 20 times by unpaid vendors for over $400,000.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Once he joined the NRA, Powell's dubious financial decisions continued.

He was getting paid almost $800,000 in 2017 total compensation, which includes more than

$100,000 of taxable personal expenses, which seems like a lot.

Yes, it is a lot.

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