It turns out Steve works for Steve.
In a report published on Sunday, The Houston Chronicle took a close look at the peculiar finances of Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), perhaps known better to Twitter users as the loudmouthed @SteveWorks4You. What the newspaper found is notable.
As both a candidate and a congressman, according to the Chronicle, Stockman has “failed to make federally required disclosures about business affiliations that stretch from Texas to the British Virgin Islands, and has provided no details about the business he claims as his sole source of income.”
Stockman returned to Congress in 2013 after more than a decade and half out of office, after winning election in Texas’ new 36th district. But he didn’t even file a federal disclosure form for his 2012 candidacy until months after he was already sworn-in this year. The reports he submitted in April and May were described as “bare-bones” by the Chronicle, and listed his 2011 and 2012 income as $350,000 in salary and fees from an entity called “Presidential Trust Marketing.”
Just what Presidential Trust Marketing is or does is not clear. In June and September, Stockman filed two more disclosures. A specialist in government ethics told the newspaper that those forms omitted the congressman’s business relationships, bank accounts, and the value of his businesses.
Stockman’s office refused to answer the Chronicle’s questions, and the newspaper was unable to verify the existence of Presidential Trust Marketing in any public records. Stockman has established at least 16 other business names and entities in a number of states over the years — and at least 10 remain active. From 2007 to 2009, Stockman had an entity called “Presidential Statutory Trust Foundation” registered in Wyoming. And in 2004, he registered a for-profit entity called “Presidential Trust” in Harris County, Texas. On his LinkedIn page, Stockman lists himself as “chair at Presidential Trust” and says he works in “nonprofit organization management.” But it is not clear whether Presidential Trust Marketing and Presidential Trust are related businesses.
None of that leads any closer to how Stockman made the $350,000. The Chronicle dug up old web pages from 2004 and 2005, when the Presidential Trust Foundation and Stockman’s name were used to solicit contributions on a website called ConservativesinAction.org. A post office box number was supplied: the same one Stockman has used over the years. According to the Chronicle, the same web pages sought donations to the same P.O. box to help produce or pre-order copies of a film promising to expose the filmmaker Michael Moore. It is not known whether the video was ever produced.
Read the whole thing here.
