West Virginia governors coal company engaging in attempt to intimidate public officials
AUG 14, 2017, 4:40 PM
The family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) is suing two top officials at the Kentucky Department for Natural Resources after the state tried to collect millions of dollars in unpaid fines from coal companies owned by Justice. Legal experts are describing the lawsuits as acts of intimidation against government officials seeking to hold a company accountable for violating the law.
The lawsuits, filed in Pike County Circuit Court on behalf of Kentucky Fuel Corp., owned by Justice, allege the actions of Kentucky Department for Natural Resources Commissioner Allen Luttrell and Deputy Commissioner John Small could have cost the company up to $4.5 million in fines, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. In a highly unusual move, the company is seeking money from department officials themselves, not the state of Kentucky for which they work.
The Department of Natural Resources had cited Kentucky Fuel and other Justice-owned companies with hundreds of coal-mining reclamation violations in eastern Kentucky. Federal law requires that coal companies rehabilitate land after coal mining operations have stopped.
https://thinkprogress.org/jim-justice-coal-company-intimidation-843ca4ea20f4/
Just in case anyone missed why he went over to the "republican " side and how they stiff taxpayers, just like the "guy" in the white house
