The Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Washington State Attorney General’s office and former AG—now governor—Bob Ferguson announced Wednesday that the AG’s office has signed an agreement ending a three-year investigation which revealed no wrongdoing by SAF or its personnel, in exchange for ending the lawsuit.
The announcement came just days before SAF will co-host the 40th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Sept. 26-28 conference will draw hundreds of Second Amendment activists, scholars, legal experts and representatives from virtually every major gun rights organization in the country. No doubt this agreement will be discussed at some point during the conference.
Under terms of the agreement, there will be no award of fees or costs to either side. The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division (CPD) “will withdraw the pending Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) for documents and depositions related to its investigation” into “potential violations of charities and consumer protection laws.”
Also under the agreement, SAF and other plaintiffs “will withdraw their pending Public Records Act (PRA) request related to this case and the underlying investigation.” SAF will make no further public records requests relating to this now-closed investigation or the dismissed federal litigation.
SAF, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and their CEO Alan Gottlieb sued Ferguson and the Attorney General’s office in federal court, alleging that Ferguson, who was attorney general at the time, had used the power of his office to chill the activities of SAF, which are aimed at protecting and expanding Second Amendment rights. Gottlieb had maintained all along the Attorney General’s investigation was politically motivated, since Ferguson has been an ardent anti-gunner. He lobbied for passage of laws banning so-called “assault weapons” and “large-capacity magazines.”
Ferguson, over the years, has been a close ally of the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility. He was endorsed by the billionaire-backed organization during his campaign for the governor’s office.
During the investigation, Gottlieb and SAF had asked for clarification what the investigation was about, and never received a definitive answer. Ferguson’s office simply kept asking for documents and records, which Gottlieb and his wife, Julianne, spent countless hours gathering and submitting.
It was not the first time Ferguson’s office had been unresponsive to such inquiries from an entity it was investigating. A few years ago, when Ferguson’s office was investigating Bellevue, WA-based Savers Value Village, King County Superior Court Judge David Whedbee ordered the AG’s office to pay the company more than $4 million for legal fees. Ferguson’s office had sued Savers Value Village when the company refused to pay millions of dollars to settle an investigation his office launched in 2014, according to an Associated Press report at the time.
While Judge Whedbee reportedly said the AG’s office “acted in good faith,” according to the AP report, he also admonished the AG’s handling of the case for apparently ignoring requests from Value Village attorneys to explain what the thrift chain was doing wrong.
When Gottlieb, SAF and CCRKBA filed the federal civil rights lawsuit, alleging Ferguson had used the power of his office in an attempt to chill their pro-gun-rights activities, the investigation appeared to have ground to a halt.
In the original complaint, filed in May 2023, Gottlieb and SAF asserted Ferguson’s CPD had “carried out an expansive, highly intrusive probe into the private affairs of SAF, CCRKBA” and other entities including the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, the Service Bureau Association, Merril Mail Marketing and Liberty Park Press, the latter an online news publication which had published articles critical of Ferguson.
Gottlieb estimates the three-year investigation cost thousands of man-hours and more than $200,000. In a statement announcing the agreement, he expressed disappointment Ferguson—who was sued both in his official capacity and as an individual—escaped having to reimburse SAF and its associate groups.
The agreement stipulates that all parties want “to settle the federal litigation to avoid additional costs of further litigation.” Essentially, the state has admitted to nothing.
Still, Gottlieb feels “vindicated” by the agreement. He said the agreement underscores SAF’s contention that the organization and its personnel “did nothing wrong.”
“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. “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.”
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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
scumbags running left coast need to be shellacked not let off