Roger Sollenberger Profile picture
Nov 13 9 tweets 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
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. Image
@StopBigMoney For instance, Johnson's income on federal disclosures doesn't match his claims on state disclosures covering the same years.

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@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 Image
@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.

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@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.
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@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.
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@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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More from @SollenbergerRC

Oct 31
Hawley may have signaled this surprising—and to many people, long overdue—move at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event in June, where he said, "As for corporate America and criticizing them, let's get one thing straight. Corporations are not people."
Hawley's former general counsel, Sean Cooksey, is currently vice chair of the FEC
Citizens United gave him $10,000 in 2016. At the time Hawley said, "Citizens United is dedicated to restoring our government to citizens' control. I'm proud to have their endorsement." Quite a reversal—maybe against corporate backlash to election objectors
Read 5 tweets
Oct 6
NEW — House Republicans have a comeback plan for their first disastrous impeachment inquiry hearing: A star fact witness against Joe Biden! (Who also sued his own dying father’s charity for $900,000.)

Here’s my report @thedailybeast
thedailybeast.com/star-impeachme…
The witness is Tony Bobulinski. In 2015, he flew into such a rage over a charity donation that he barged into his parents’ home & shook his father’s head, knowing there was a brain tumor in there. His dad died 2 months after Tony sued him. Tony fought the case for 10 more months.
While Tony was trying to chisel money back from his parents & their esteemed children’s charity, he was also shoveling hundreds of thousands of dollars of his money into a faltering US-China business venture, which (surprise!) he also eventually sued
Read 4 tweets
Aug 15
Lindsey Graham's campaign has spent about $1.16 million this year. One out of five dollars went to lawyers.

Since Jan. 6, Graham's campaign has spent roughly $720,000 on legal fees. Before Jan. 6, his total combined legal costs — going back to 2011 — was about $74,000.
All conveniently recorded here fec.gov/data/disbursem…
Depending what we see tonight, that's donor money spent either wisely or in vain
Read 4 tweets
Aug 10
NEW: GOP candidate Anthony Sabatini plagiarized huge chunks of his honors thesis in philosophy at the University of Florida—lifting directly from Wikipedia. He graduated magna cum laude, went to law school, became an attorney & lawmaker. Me @thedailybeast
thedailybeast.com/gop-candidate-…
You really have to read this to understand just how egregious this is. The first *sentence* is plagiarized. Entire paragraphs. He also misspells his central subject’s name throughout the entire thing—“Freidrich” Nietzsche.
I used to teach college English and lit. But when someone told me they believed Sabatini plagiarized a lot of his thesis, I still had no clue what I was about to find. Here’s a taste. (This plagiarized passage continues for three more sentences btw)
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Read 4 tweets
Jul 22
Also haven’t seen many lab leakers or contrarians consistently clarify they mean the possibility of an *accidental* leak & aren’t endorsing the obvious subtext among the many kooks using the debate in bad faith to imply that scientists/intel are saying COVID was a bioweapon
Genuinely hope I am wrong about this, @NateSilver538


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@NateSilver538 A very clear debate about the possibility of an accidental leak is annoying but I guess scientifically tolerable & not fully insane. But how do these pundits not understand their context-free opinions are fueling a truly nutso theory that, if true, almost certainly mandates war
Read 9 tweets
Jun 20
Hunter Biden will plead guilty to $1.2 million in tax violations & a gun charge, getting 2 years probation & order to enter a rehab-type program in exchange for wiping the gun charge. Far cry from the allegations from the far-right GOP... washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
This is fully consistent with reports about what the DOJ — opened by TRUMP's DOJ — has been investigating since at least December 2020 cnbc.com/2020/12/09/hun…
FWIW the Bidens say that Hunter, who struggled for years with drug addiction, has paid the taxes. Did Biden's DOJ rein in the probe & let him off easy? I'm sure some very reliable folks will say that in good faith! But 2.5 years suggests a robust & sweeping investigation.
Read 4 tweets

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