Jim Justice’s Rocky Summer

Over the summer, Jim Justice’s mounting scandals took center stage in West Virginia Republicans’ “messy,” “costly,” and “bruising” primary. Check out the coverage highlighting Justice’s barrage of financial scandals, his refusal to release his personal financial disclosure and his work schedule, the renewed scrutiny over his health issues, his ties to Saudi Arabia, and more below:

• Justice is facing renewed scrutiny over the “string of health issues” that “have hounded Justice ever since he first took office” and “caused rumors to spread among lawmakers and others in the Capitol … that the governor would resign.” After Justice underwent gallbladder surgery, and “was forced to postpone” his scheduled events after a visit to the hospital, Sen. Rand Paul, who is backing Mooney, questioned Justice’s ability to serve given his “well-documented [health] issues.”
  
  
• 20+ Justice-owned companies “missed several payments in a row” in a lawsuit seeking millions in unpaid penalties and fines over unsafe working conditions at his coal mines. His companies are the subject of “multiple unpaid tax liens” and “dozens of safety violations” that are “likely to result in serious injury” for mine workers. 

• Despite having nearly four months to complete it, Justice failed to file his personal financial disclosure by the deadline of August 24. This comes after Jim Justice’s lawyers attempted to “use [Justice’s] Senate bid as [an] excuse” to “push off” and “shield” his financial disclosures and a judge “rejected those arguments.” Personal financial disclosures are “mandatory for members and candidates,” and Justice’s failure to file means he is breaking the law and hiding potential conflicts of interest from West Virginians.
  
  
• While Justice continues to hide his official schedule from West Virginians, the DSCC launched a new website — WhatIsJimJusticeHiding.com — and put up billboards near Justice’s Greenbrier resort and the Kanawha County Courthouse encouraging West Virginians to learn more about Justice’s efforts to hide his official schedule and his ongoing scandals. Justice has repeatedly refused to release records pertaining to his official schedule or official calendar and the DSCC is currently suing Justice’s office to demand the release of these records. 

• Jim Justice called the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tournament — which was held at Justice’s resort earlier this month — a “great event” and reaffirmed his position that “Saudi Arabia is a great ally of the United States.” This comes as multiple outlets reported on how the event highlighted Justice’s “controversial business ties to an authoritarian country,” how he “cozies” up to and “directly profit[s]” off Saudi Arabia and how he has “courted the Saudi-backed venture and has called the kingdom a key ally,” “raising ethical concerns about … a conflict of interest” if elected to the U.S. Senate.
  

All of these scandals have led Justice to draw “fire from the influential conservative group Club For Growth.” The group launched a new ad buy in West Virginia that “slams Jim Justice” for his ties to Mitch McConnell and “the Washington ‘swamp.’ This follows previous reporting that West Virginia is a “major front” in the multi-million dollar “looming proxy war” between national Republicans — who are backing Justice — and the Club for Growth — who endorsed Mooney and raised $13.55 million to support Mooney’s campaign.

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