Republican West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice and his wife, Cathy Justice, agreed to pay more than $5 million in unpaid income taxes stretching back to 2009, per the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The agreement was inked hours after attorneys for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Tax Division filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia for $5,164,739.75, according to Monday court filings. The debt Justice and his wife owe consists of federal income taxes, penalties, interest, and statutory additions that have accrued from the 2009 tax period.
All parties agreed to a joint motion, which stated the full amount must be paid in addition to statutory interest, but failed to specify when the payments must be completed. The motion still needs a judge’s approval.
Despite having been sued by the Trump administration’s DOJ, Justice is widely seen as a staunch political ally of President Donald Trump. The president won West Virginia by over 40 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
Sen. Justice’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Justice, 74, inherited a coal mining business from his father and acquired a historic mountain resort before entering politics. He won the election as West Virginia governor as a Democrat in 2016 before switching his party the following year. After serving two terms, he won the 2024 election in a landslide to replace longtime Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin in the U.S. Senate.
The Justices have been dogged by debt since at least 2016, according to the Washington Post. Unpaid bills and taxes, as well as fines to coal suppliers and regulators, began to build up, leading Forbes to estimate in January that the senator’s liabilities exceeded his assets. Also, the West Virginia Tax Division in August and September filed tax claims of over $1.3 million against the resort and sporting companies Justice owns.
The IRS last month filed notices of tax lien against Justice and his wife, stating they owed over $8 million, according to Politico. Justice appeared to wave off the debt, claiming at an October news briefing that the IRS’s claims were “more of a political move” and it’s a scenario “big companies deal with all the time.”
“At the end of the day,” Justice said, “I’d say just let it be and see how it all plays out.”
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