West Virginia Dem calls Senator Jim Justice 'a compromised man' in wake of tax scandal

CHARLESTON, W. Va. (CN) — A recent agreement reached between the federal government and West Virginia’s junior senator — and former governor — to settle a nearly two decades-old tax debt is but the latest tactic in his scheme of evading taxes, the state’s Democratic leader said Wednesday.

“This is his M.O.,” said Mike Pushkin, a Kanawha state delegate and chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party. “Lesser people have gone to prison for crimes like this.”

Pushkin’s comments in a Wednesday interview came after Republican Senator Jim Justice II and his wife reached an agreement Monday to pay over $5.1 million to the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid 2009 federal income taxes.

For Pushkin, Justice’s failure to not only take responsibility for his financial obligations but also be transparent on how he’s being bailed out shows that he has interests other than his constituents in mind.

“He’s a compromised man,” he said.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division claimed the Justices “are indebted to the United States in the amount of $5,164,739.75 for federal income taxes, penalties, and interest, plus statutory additions” for 2009.

The department claims “despite notice and demand for payment of the assessments …  James C. Justice, II, and Cathy L. Justice have neglected or refused to make full payment of those assessments to the United States.”

The same day, the government and Steven R. Ruby, the Justice’s attorney, filed a joint motion for consent judgment.  U.S. District Judge Frank W. Volk approved it Tuesday.

In 2009, Justice acquired The Greenbrier Hotel, a 710-room luxury hotel in White Sulphur Springs, out of bankruptcy. Last year, it was on the brink of foreclosure after a creditor declared the Justice family company overseeing its operation was in default of loan payments.

The planned sale was halted after the Justice family company announced an agreement reached with the creditor, McCormick 101, to “receive a specific amount to be paid by Oct. 24, 2024.”  Though he did not provide details, Justice said then he obtained the necessary funds to keep the loan payments current and The Greenbrier “in our family forevermore.”

“It’s taken care of, and we move forward, and The Greenbrier is as whole as it can possibly be,” Justice said then at a news briefing.

Currently, the hotel has $1.4 million lien against it for unpaid state taxes.

Justice also claimed the timing of foreclosure was “politically motivated” by the original creditor, JPMorgan Chase, to harm his bid for U.S. Senate.

Originally elected governor in 2016 as a Democrat, Justice formally announced at an August 2017 rally in Huntington headlined by President Donald J. Trump, he was changing his affiliation to Republican. Following a successful reelection bid in 2020, Justice defeated former Wheeling Mayor Greg Elliott to fill the seat vacated by retiring Senator Joe Manchin, also a former two-term governor.

During a press conference last month, Justice decried liens the IRS filed against he and Cathy totaling $8 million saying they, too, were politically motivated.

Neither Justice nor Ruby, also a former assistant U.S. Attorney, immediately responded to requests for comment regarding the agreement.