NEW: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says his finances make him "relatable." I reviewed 15 years of his finances and found it's hard for any American to understand—let alone relate to it. Here's a financial profile on the new Speaker, as much as we know thedailybeast.com/mike-johnsons-…
Transparency advocate group End Citizens United (@StopBigMoney) just filed a House ethics complaint against Johnson, included in this piece, naming multiple apparent violations. But the inconsistencies we uncovered go even further
@StopBigMoney Johnson as an individual earner is in the top 10% of US households. Top 5% in his district, with one of the lowest costs of living. Yet he doesn't have a reportable bank account. He pulls income from a number of sources, and the nature of his work makes the income hard to trace.
@StopBigMoney For instance, Johnson's income on federal disclosures doesn't match his claims on state disclosures covering the same years.
@StopBigMoney In 2016, the year he ran for Congress, Johnson saw an *extra* cash influx of at least $115,000 — yet disclosed no reportable bank account
@StopBigMoney Johnson also ran a not-for-profit law firm that registered with the state of Louisiana and won $190,000 in attorney fees that year. But I couldn't find any federal tax filings from the group in IRS or nonprofit databases.
@StopBigMoney Many of the potential violations in the ECU complaint involve Johnson's wife, whose income sources are opaque. Her nonprofit mostly serves to generate her salary, but that salary is different from what Johnson has said it is. The group also didn't file tax returns for 2 years.
@StopBigMoney Johnson's wife also has a private company by a similar name. The company never appears on his disclosures. And its website promoted her as a hired speaker, charging fees. But if she made money from it, that's not on his disclosures, either.
@StopBigMoney But there's a lot more in the article, and a lot more to learn about Mike Johnson. I hope this shows how complex his income really is & why it's critical for the public to understand the financial interests behind the most powerful people in our country. thedailybeast.com/mike-johnsons-…
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On the left, an Epstein document the DOJ released in 2024, with Trump’s name and others. It’s still up on the DOJ website. On the right, the same document as DOJ redacted it in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The claims themselves in these documents are hotly disputed — the source, Epstein survivor Sarah Ransome, fully recanted them at one point, but then reasserted them, saying she retracted them under threats from Epstein world huffpost.com/entry/jeffrey-…
SCOOP: After two public court hearings, a Florida judge has issued a restraining order against Rep. Cory Mills for "protection against dating violence." Mills's ex-girlfriend filed for the injunction in August, alleging sextortion & violent threats. More TK from the decision.
I broke the news of the ex-girlfriend's allegations and the restraining order request in August, for @DropSiteNews. Lots of detail here. dropsitenews.com/p/miss-united-…
@DropSiteNews The judge found Mills lied a lot — e.g., he "never told the truth" to his ex about another woman "until he was placed under oath in this matter and underwent a vigorous cross-examination." His ex "finally heard the truth," the judge wrote, "at the same time he told this Court."
News: GOP Rep. Cory Mills—who is supposed to get cross-examined in his restraining order case on Friday—just popped up again on an unannounced solo trip to Syria for some reason. He met with the Finance Minister yesterday, per the ministry's Facebook page: facebook.com/almaliaassouri…
The chief legal officer of Mills's weapons company was middleman on a recent foreign agent registration for a new Mideast nonprofit called ... The Foundation for the Development of Western Syria
On Mills's trip to Syria in April, he pulled a secret solo meeting with the new president — at the time a U.S.-designated terrorist who founded Al Nusra Front. More on that trip here
Imagine calling yourself a “congressman” while using your own official government website to promote your own secret charity that you have never disclosed, as required by federal law
And imagine calling yourself anyone at all and @ing someone in a tweet who you have blocked
@ING Imagine calling yourself a “congressman” and using the official House insignia on your oversized promotional *personal* checks. Wonder what ethics rules say about that
SCOOP: Rep. Cory Mills is being evicted for failure to pay months of rent at his D.C. penthouse. Owner claims Mills owes $85,000. He was served with notice for failure to pay in January. Ledger shows he paid late nearly every month since moving in, missing several months entirely
When Mills was served in January, the owner notified him that he had until Feb 26 to pay. On Feb 20, his girlfriend reported him to the police for assaulting her at that penthouse, which she later recanted apnews.com/article/cory-m…
Mills' company has also failed to pay its debts. They got bad news earlier this month, when its lender told investors that the investment fund supporting his company had failed and would be shut down
I think I found the Syrian plane that secretly helped Assad regime leaders escape to Benghazi. I found it because two congressmen—one of them an active global arms dealer & Foreign Affairs Committee member—posed with it on Instagram. The plane is currently under US sanctions.
Why’d a weapons maker—rife with conflicts of interest in the region & completely soaked in undisclosed foreign debt—go to Syria with a newly madeover nonprofit advocating for lifting sanctions on a gov we haven’t recognized that’s run by former Al Qaeda & is on our terror list?
And why is this same congressional arms dealer doing this while his weapons company’s chief legal counsel—who has close ties with notorious US mercenary Erik Prince—lobbies on behalf of Libyan allies of Assad? Let’s find out!