'Very unusual': Financial disclosures reveal Mike Johnson 'does not have a bank account' or investments

01 November 2023

Although House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has been served in the U.S. House of Representatives since January 2017, he had a relatively low profile until recently. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) even said that she needed to Google him after House Republicans nominated him for the position.

Now that the 51-year-old Johnson is speaker, reporters and politicians who didn't pay a lot of attention to him before are researching his history — especially his activities as a far-right Christian fundamentalist and his commitment to Christian nationalist ideology. Johnson's anti-gay, anti-abortion history has been receiving a great deal of scrutiny from journalists.

But the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger, in a report published on November 1, focuses on another aspect of the House speaker's history: his finances.

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"Newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) does not have a bank account," Sollenberger reports. "At least, that's what Johnson reports on years of personal financial disclosures, which date back to 2016 and reveal a financial life that, in the context of his role as a congressman and now speaker, appears extraordinarily precarious. Over the course of seven years, Johnson has never reported a checking or savings account in his name, nor in the name of his wife or any of his children, disclosures show."

Sollenberger continues, "In fact, he doesn't appear to have money stashed in any investments, with his latest filing — covering 2022 — showing no assets whatsoever. Of course, it's unlikely Johnson doesn't actually have a bank account. What's more likely is Johnson lives paycheck to paycheck — so much so that he doesn't have enough money in his bank account to trigger the checking account disclosure rules for members of Congress."

Harmond Curran's Brett Kappel, a government ethics expert, told the Beast that it would be "very unusual for a member" of Congress "not to have to disclose at least one bank account."

Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), argues that if Johnson lacks assets despite earning a congressman's salary, it "raises questions about his personal financial wellbeing."

Libowitz told the Beast, "It's strange to see Speaker Johnson disclose no assets. He made over $200,000 last year, and his wife took home salary from two employers as well. So, why isn't there a bank account or any form of savings listed?.... He owes hundreds of thousands of dollars between a mortgage, personal loan, and home equity line of credit. So, where did that money go?”

Read The Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).

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