West Virginia's new Senator may not have a pot to piss in anymore but that hasn't stopped him from travelling in style.
Source: Punchbowl News
Most days before the Senate starts its day, a privately-owned Cessna Citation V jet lands at Washington Reagan National Airport.
And most evenings, after the chamber is done with its business, the same jet takes off for Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg, W.Va.
On that plane is newly elected Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.).
Justice has been commuting to D.C. from his home in the Mountain State nearly every day, cutting what would be a four-hour drive to a 40-minute flight. Justice owns the famed Greenbrier resort, only 15 minutes from the airport.
Punchbowl then listed the flights, with Justice explaining his largesse that he hasn't found a place to live in Washington yet. Understandable if Justice were still rich, but according to Forbes, Jim Justice is now one of the poorest members of Congress, from a billionaire to a pauper and is now, at least on paper, broke.
How can that be? After all, for nearly a decade until 2021 Forbes figured Justice to be a billionaire, the richest man in the Mountain State, thanks to a lifetime amassing a fortune in coal and real estate with gems like the historic, 710-room Greenbrier resort in West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains, with its golf course that has hosted the annual LIV Golf tournament.
But a closer look at Justice’s finances reveals that his empire is severely troubled. The Greenbrier, for example, is suffering from years of neglect and may now be worth less than half the $1 billion value Justice long claimed. Justice’s coal companies, led by Bluestone Resources, still mine about 500,000 tons per year, but that is down from 2 million tons a decade ago. They likely generate $150 million in revenues and have an enterprise value less than $200 million.
Those are substantial assets, but Justice's liabilities are much greater. According to Forbes estimates, Jim Justice is in hock to the tune of more than $1 billion, in the form of personally guaranteed bank loans, debt, court judgments and environmental liabilities. By Forbes reckoning the new Republican Senator from West Virginia has a net worth of less than zero.
All of this makes sense when you realize that Jim Justice sees backing Trump as his Senate mandate. His reason for being, as it were. And when Donald Trump is your hero...
