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 Spees, a reporter at the Trace, a publication that covers the gun industry.

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

Just three years ago, Powell was the relatively unknown chief of staff for Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president.

And 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.

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

I had first started to look into him in 2018, Powell that is, and 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. Yes. Which seems like a lot. Yes, it is a lot. And at the time when I

discovered that tax specialist said that that was an

extraordinary amount of money. While Powell was working at the NRA, his dad wound up taking

photos for the association's glossy gun magazines. His wife got a consulting job with a major

NRA contractor. He even tried to orchestrate the hiring of a woman with whom he'd had a prior

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