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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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!
NEW: In 2014, Mohamed Al-Hanooti—Hamas fundraiser & unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombing—was back at Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, as the DC-area mufti, or top Islamic cleric.
That year, he presided over Rep Cory Mills’ marriage in a religious ceremony. 1/X
Here’s the marriage certificate. Fairfax County confirmed to me the info on this document matches their official records. For officiant address, Hanooti, who died in 2015, listed Dar al-Hijrah mosque, where he also previously served as imam. Anwar Al-Awlaki was also a DAH imam.
If you want to know what Republicans like to say about this particular mosque, Hanooti, and people who associate with them, google away. Or you can just ask GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, pictured here with Mills and GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson last June.
NEW: Rep Cory Mills said on his Bronze Star papers he saved this man's life. Troops in the battle told me it's a lie. Yet here he is months after his star—after taking $2000 from the man's dad. If the claims I have are true, Mills lied about his war heroics. Did he have help? 1/X
The Daytona News-Journal investigated Mills' Bronze Star last year. It led to this headline, seemingly confirming it was settled & Mills' claims checked out. But his claims *don't* check out. He got re-elected & currently sits on Armed Services. news-journalonline.com/story/news/loc…
The officer who awarded medals for the events—Col. Shannon E. Nielsen—told me Mills wasn't involved, barely recalled him. Statements from troops who lived the events—in a complaint filed with the Ofc of Cong Ethics—say Mills wasn't there. Here's one from a man Mills said he saved
Rep. Cory Mills went to Syria with another Congressman. But only Mills met with Syria's foreign minister & president about lifting sanctions. Mills runs an arms company, whose current & longtime general counsel, Joe Schmitz, has been working for the pro-Assad Libyan Parliament
Schmitz is working as a subcontractor for the Vogel group, which landed the Libya contract in Oct. 2023, per DOJ foreign agent filings. It seems a great deal of the payments have been going to Schmitz.
Schmitz's work for Libyan Parliament includes legislator outreach. Last Feb, they requested a meeting with Cory Mills' own congressional general counsel. Libya has a divided government, and the head of Parliament claimed command of the Libyan army as recently as November.