Mark Meadows and the Dinosaur Property

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Tue Oct 1, 2019, 12:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Kevin M. Kruse Retweeted

Wild read about rare dinosaur bones on land Congressman Mark Meadows sold to creationist fossil hunters—but didn't report in financial disclosures—at least the 2nd real estate deal he failed to disclose, raising ethics questions about a potential pattern

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News Desk
Mark Meadows and the Undisclosed Dinosaur Property
A fight among fossil hunters, a dubious documentary, and the conservative congressman from North Carolina.

By Charles Bethea 5:00 A.M.

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5d810fcc227222000932d4e2/master/w_649,c_limit/Bethea-MeadowsDinosaur.jpg

Joe Taylor and Dana Forbes with a dinosaur bone excavated on land that the congressman Mark Meadows sold to the creationist organization Answers in Genesis three years ago.
Photograph Courtesy Joe Taylor

Three years ago, the North Carolina congressman Mark Meadows sold a hundred-and-thirty-four-acre property in Dinosaur, Colorado. The buyer was Answers in Genesis, a Christian nonprofit based in Kentucky, which was founded by the Australian creationist Ken Ham. Answers in Genesis is dedicated to promoting young-Earth creationism, which holds that the Earth was created in six days, several thousand years ago. According to documents related to the sale, Meadows was to be paid about two hundred thousand dollars for the property, in monthly installments, the last of which was paid last year.

Neither the sale nor any such payments are noted on Meadows’s congressional financial disclosures, which he is required by law to file annually. Meadows is a founding member of the very conservative House Freedom Caucus and is one of the more prominent members of Congress; last year, Donald Trump reportedly considered making him the White House chief of staff. Why didn’t Meadows disclose the property or the sale? The congressman declined to comment for this story. In August, the Charlotte Observer reported that Meadows—who, before becoming a congressman, was a successful real-estate developer—owned land in northeastern North Carolina that he had also failed to list on his disclosure reports. It’s possible that these nondisclosures reflect a pattern of ignoring congressional reporting rules.

It’s also possible that Meadows wanted to avoid drawing attention to the Colorado property and the complicated and perhaps unflattering story behind it. The property is not an ordinary piece of land but a rich site for finding dinosaur bones, and this appears to be the primary reason that Meadows bought it. Those bones then became the subject of a long-running fight among young-Earth creationists—and they are likely the reason that Meadows sold the land, ultimately, to Answers in Genesis. Meadows’s involvement with the land may have been, in part, a moneymaking venture, but it seems chiefly to reflect his commitment to, and entanglement with, the contentious and controversial world of creationist paleontology.
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[czarjak]

1. Creationist fossil hunters?

[DuckBurp]

2. Moreover, did Meadows pay income tax on the amount he received?

I believe it would be taxable under the Internal Revenue Code.

[MyMission]

3. That's my congressman

I don't contact him because I know it's a waste of my energy.

But I've attended numerous rallies or protests, either in front of or a few blocks away from his office, or where he's attending meetings.

Hope this will ruin his chances for reelection!