All articles tagged with #propublica report
A Democratic lawmaker is demanding transparency from the Agriculture Secretary regarding discrepancies in Forest Service firefighting staffing data, highlighting significant vacancies and misleading public claims of full staffing, amid ongoing concerns about firefighting capacity and staffing practices.
A new report from ProPublica suggests that former President Donald Trump's legal team may have failed to inform a New York court that he could have secured a $464 million bond before it was reduced to $175 million in his civil fraud case. Despite claiming it would have been practically impossible to obtain the higher amount, a billionaire lender had expressed willingness to provide the full bond and use real estate as collateral. The lawyers allegedly did not file paperwork alerting the appeals court about this development, potentially violating ethics rules. Ultimately, the appellate court ruled in Trump's favor, lowering the bond to $175 million, and the billionaire lender ended up providing the bond for the reduced amount.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas complained about his salary to a Republican lawmaker in 2000, expressing frustration with his financial standing and suggesting that one or more justices might resign if they didn't receive a raise, according to a ProPublica report. Thomas, who was in significant debt at the time, had also discussed removing a ban on justices giving paid speeches. The report also revealed that Thomas accepted numerous gifts and financial support from wealthy friends without disclosing them, including luxury vacations and tuition payments. Democratic lawmakers have called for ethics reform for the Supreme Court, while conservatives and Justice Samuel Alito have criticized the reports as unfair attacks on Thomas.
Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger has denied allegations that Warren Buffett traded stocks in his personal account before the conglomerate made similar moves. Munger argued that Buffett's charitable giving and the majority of his wealth being tied up in Berkshire stock make it unlikely that he would engage in such behavior. The allegations were made in a ProPublica report citing leaked IRS data, which claimed that Buffett made at least $466 million in personal stock sales between 2000 and 2019. However, the timing of these trades has not been independently confirmed.
Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose a 2014 real estate deal with a GOP megadonor on his annual financial disclosure forms, according to a ProPublica report. The deal involved the purchase of a $1.5 million home in Georgia, which was later sold for $1.2 million to Harlan Crow, a major Republican donor and supporter of Thomas. Thomas' failure to disclose the deal raises questions about potential conflicts of interest and transparency.