1/ Here’s a story about how journalism works.

Spoiler Alert: This is how we decide *not* to publish.

We were recently looking at Pete Hegesth’s different statements over the years about West Point, where he has said he was admitted.

First stop: West Point.

https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/1866833468589584625

2/ We contacted the West Point Public Affairs Office.

The first spokesperson wrote on the record: “According to the admissions office – Hegseth had not applied for admission to the U.S. Military Academy.”

1/All year, we've revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas secretly took $100Ks in undisclosed gifts from conservative billionaires.

Defenders have said: Nothing to see here! The judiciary's ethics complaints body investigated and cleared him!

That's not true. 2/@BrettMmurphy & @kirstenberg uncovered the secret history of that "probe."

Turns out it wasn't anything of the sort. The committee never gathered any evidence.

Asked what they did, one judge told us: "I'm telling you: nothing."

1/ .@gcaw, a journalist I have long admired, scored a nice coup with an interview with Harlan Crow, the billionaire benefactor of Clarence Thomas

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

But there are questions that still haven’t been fully answered.

I can think of several. 2/ Here’s one: We reported that Crow purchased three properties from Thomas’s family for just over $133,000.

propublica.org/article/claren…

Crow says the price was at “fair market value.” How does he know? Were there comps? Was there an independent 3rd party appraisal? Can we see it?

NEW BLOCKBUSTER:

Clarence Thomas took in his grand-nephew, “raising him like a son.”

Sent him to expensive private schools.

And the tuition?

Picked up by billionaire Harlan Crow.

It was secret. Until now.

@JustinElliott & @js_kaplan got the goods:

propublica.org/article/claren… Here’s the thing:

Once, Thomas got a gift from another friend for $5,000 for his grand-nephew’s education. And he disclosed it!

Ethics experts say that shows he understood the law’s requirements.

But later when Crow paid *more* tuition for the kid, Thomas didn’t disclose.

NEW: We have something unprecedented. Yes, people use that word too much. It’s valid in this case.

You have to tell the IRS all your stock sales in the past year. We have the wealthiest Americans’ taxes. So we have their stock trades.

Here’s our story:
propublica.org/article/secret… Take August Troendle, CEO of Medspace. He trades a major competitor very very well.

Here's something quite bizarre. I'm not sure I've ever seen something quite like it.

On Monday, @brittanyagibson wrote a very good story examining Stacey Abrams' troubling financial relationship with a law firm run by a buddy and campaign chair.

politico.com/news/2022/10/2… The problem the story laid out was that the law firm was charging what experts say was exorbitant amounts of money for its work: Almost $10mln of $25mln over two years for a tiny firm, more than $200K per employees, it seems.

1/ NEW from the #SecretIRSFiles: It’s the Mystery of Jeff Yass.

He’s a huge Wall Street player.

He’s a billionaire many times over.

He’s a major GOP donor.

That’s not the mystery. 2/ The mystery is his tax rate.

It’s been extremely low in recent years: 19%

It's much lower than his Wall Street peers like Ken Griffin.

That’s saved Yass a cool $1 billion.

And it gets odder.

1/ NEW: Today @ProPublica is revealing, for the first time ever, who makes the most income in America–and what taxes they pay.

Dive in here! We've got charts! Tables! Gizmos! It's the most fun you’ll have thinking about taxes this morning.

projects.propublica.org/americas-highe… 2/ This data, based on our secret trove of IRS data on the ultrawealthy, shows the tax code is making wealth inequality worse.

Here’s why:

People are going to attack Biden’s Billionaire Tax Proposal—relentlessly.

The superrich & their friends will say it singles them out unfairly, it’s not workable & it’s unconstitutional.

What to make of these?

THREAD First, what would this proposal do?

It will tax not just realized gains but “unrealized” gains. That means it counts gains when things people own go up—even if they haven’t sold.

It would touch a vanishingly small number of extremely wealthy people.

Huge development.

Our tax system is broken. The ultrawealthy are outside of it.

washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022… .@JStein_WaPo has it exactly right here:

So the IRS Inspector General just took a look at how many partnerships the IRS audits.

And it's a disaster. First off, are partnerships a big deal?

Yep. 70% of partnership income goes to the top 1%, according to @RonWyden.

& they are great vehicles for hiding money, since partnerships can own partnerships that can own partnership, etc. (Most hedge funds are partnerships.)

Meet Phyllis Taylor. She’s a big New Orleanian billionaire philanthropist.

A friend called her a “Gentle Dove.” She also likes hunting, and shot this leopard in Zambia: Early on when @paulkiel & @jeffernsthausen & I dove into the #SecretIRSFiles, Phyllis Taylor stood out.

Her taxes are mind-boggling. It shows her losing on the order of $350 million--every year.

She hadn’t paid federal income taxes for years and years.

How was that possible?

NEW: How billionaires slash their taxes--and have fun doing it!

Hobbies & passion projects all provide losses that allow some to not pay fedl income taxes for more than a decade.

Next in our #SecretIRSFiles from @PAUKIEL, me & @JeffErnsthausen:

propublica.org/article/when-y… Did you know that the Kentucky Derby is heavily underwritten by taxpayers?

Yep. We’re subsidizing the pleasure of the superrich:

NEW: Some billionaires tell the IRS they lose money every year.

In real life they make tons of money.

The next big installment of the #SecretIRSFiles, from @JeffErnsthausen, @paulkiel, & me: propublica.org/article/these-… They offset that tons of $$ w/ big deductions & go years w/out paying taxes. Today's story is on real estate & fossil fuel tycoons:
-Stephen Ross, (Hudson Yards)
-Kelcy Warren, (Dakota Access Pipeline)
-Charles Kushner (Jared’s dad)
&
-Trump (yeah we got his taxes)

What's going on with @HeidiHeitkamp & taxes now is an incredible story of how Washington works.

At once, shocking but also entirely normal.

It's about a seemingly complicated tax gift for the ultrawealthy that isn't complicated at all. Here's how it works: Say you buy shares of Amazon at $100 and they go up to $200 after a year. You sell. You have to pay capital gains tax on that $100.

But let's say you are so rich that you don't need to sell...

Ok, let's talk traditional tax rates--taxes over income.

We got the tax returns & measured the effective tax rate for the top 25 richest Americans.

Remember, here's how our tax system is supposed to work: the more income you have, the higher percentage you pay.

Does it? People making btn $2-$5 million pay the highest, at 27.5%.

Then: Effective rates start falling!

The top slice measured by the IRS, abt 1400 people, pays about 23%.

& the top 25 billionaires? They pay just 15.8%.

That's actually more than a single person making just $45K/year.

NEW: Today @ProPublica presents The Secret IRS Files. We have obtained a vast trove of never-before-seen tax data on thousands of the richest Americans covering more than 15 years. (THREAD)

propublica.org/article/the-se… 2/ The data provide an unprecedented look into the financial lives of America’s titans, from Jeff Bezos, to Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Mike Bloomberg & many more.

I'm writing. Which means procrastinating.

So I've been thinking about some Rules for Reporting:

1. Pick up the damn phone. You know less than you think but someone out there knows something. This is scary and won’t get easier over time. (credit: @Colarusso42) 2. Ask dumb questions. Your job is to look at closed priesthoods and ask why they do the things they do. You will be told you are dumb. That’s ok. One of those questions will turn out to be newsworthy.

NEW===> A Republican US Attorney in Texas wanted to indict Walmart over opioid dispensing.

Trump appointees at the DOJ quashed it.

From me and @jamesbandler:

propublica.org/article/walmar… I know that Covid-19 (legitimately) is almost all anyone can think about, but this is a rare window into how the corporate justice system really works in America.

Wow, this is a total weaponization of the DOJ against Trump antagonists happening right before our eyes:

wsj.com/articles/justi… In keeping with the possible charging of McCabe, the hounding of Bruce Ohr, the IG report on Comey, etc.

Two and a half years in, Trump and his acolytes are figuring out how to use the apparatus of the state to reward friends & punish enemies. A direct attack on the rule of law.

Comes the news that Bernard Arnault joins the exclusive $100 billion worth club! Congrats to him! Here's a story about suspicious securities transactions and journalism. bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Back in 2001, LVMH, which was controlled by Arnault, mysteriously acquired a significant stake in Bouygues, a French telecom company. Bouygues stock had been collapsing in the wake of the global stock market bubble bust.