Washington AG Ends Fishing Expedition Against SAF

After three years of investigating the Second Amendment Foundation for evidence of some wrongdoing, the Washington Attorney General’s office has closed the books on the probe without filing any charges or civil complaints against the group or its leaders. 

The investigation was started by now-governor Bob Ferguson, who’s been an ardent gun control activist throughout his political career. When he was serving as Washington’s Attorney General Ferguson stumped for multiple gun control laws, including bans on so-called assault weapons and “large capacity” magazines, but he also channeled his inner Letitia James by targeting the Second Amendment Foundation for allegedly violating consumer protection and charitable solicitation laws. 

[SAF founder Alan] Gottlieb said the Bellevue-based SAF was never provided information from the AGO regarding what it was looking for.

“It was very intimidating,” he added. “And I really don’t know for sure what they were really looking for because there’s nothing there. They were arguing that we weren’t complying with consumer protection laws in the state of Washington and charitable solicitation laws in the state of Washington.”

The agreement between SAF and the AGO includes SAF’s withdrawal of its pending Public Records Act request for records from the Attorney General’s office.

“This investigation, launched by Bob Ferguson in an effort to discredit our work on behalf of gun owners and the Second Amendment, was a politically motivated legal fishing expedition,” Gottlieb declared triumphantly in a Wednesday news release. “Ferguson’s witch hunt wasted three years of our time and cost us thousands of man-hours and more than $200,000. We’re convinced this happened because he is a devoted anti-gun rights politician, and we are a national organization whose mission is to protect and defend the Second Amendment.”

The new Attorney General, meanwhile, is claiming the settlement is no big deal. 

“The foundation is agreeing to dismiss their own lawsuit against the AG’s Office – dismissing their own lawsuit is hardly a ‘vindication’ of their allegations,” AGO Communications Director Mike Faulk said in an email. “SAF wanted to walk away from their litigation against the state, and we agreed not to seek fees if they dismissed their case. That’s mainly what this agreement does.”

Faulk continued: “We also agreed to withdraw some years-old requests for documents and depositions, and close our previous investigation, but in no way does that mean SAF complied with the law. Nothing in the settlement prevents the state from investigating SAF further or pursuing the allegations of wrongdoing that have been widely reported. And nothing in the settlement in any way suggests that SAF has complied with the law. This settlement simply lets us avoid having to deal with further litigation over SAF’s political animus claims that two courts have already rejected.”

Now hang on here. If the AG believes there’s any merit to those supposedly widely reported allegations of wrongdoing, then why is it closing its investigation? 

It seems to me like the AG’s office is trying to save face here. Of course the settlement doesn’t prevent the state from launching another investigation in the future. It would be bizarre for any kind of settlement to indemnify an individual or organization from ever being investigated going forward. 

But after three years, the AG’s office apparently found nothing that they could bring before a judge or jury regarding SAF’s operations. Faulk argues that the settlement doesn’t mean that SAF complied with the law, but it also doesn’t mean that SAF broke any laws. 

Gottlieb says the settlement will allow SAF to go back to devoting full time and attention to the more than 50 lawsuits its involved in around the country that take on various gun control laws. Continuing its litigation against the AG’s office would take “a number of years, and another couple hundred thousand dollars ,” which Gottlieb says would be a waste of time that takes away from SAF’s mission of defending Second Amendment rights.

He’s right. And honestly, Washington Attorney General Nicholas Brown has better things to do than repeat the mistakes of his predecessor, so hopefully Faulk’s implied threat of a future investigation is just bluster from a public relations flak and not a signal that Brown intends to waste more taxpayer dollars going after a group fighting to defend our Second Amendment rights. 

[In full disclosure, I serve as an upaid board member of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which is the sister committee to the Second Amendment Foundation.] 

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