New Disclosures Show Noel Francisco's Stock Sales Before SCOTUS Term
What we learned from the annual financial disclosure filed by ex-Jones Day partner Noel Francisco, now the U.S. solicitor general.
August 20, 2018 at 11:41 AM
3 minute read
Noel Francisco. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM
The Jones Day law firm last year paid U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco more than $2.2 million, representing additional income he earned before joining the Trump administration in January 2017.
Francisco's 2018 annual financial disclosure form, made public last week, stated the payment reflects “gross amounts, prior to various offsets for certain taxes, insurance, and other expenses paid directly by the firm. This figure also includes $54,000 that was deposited in the Jones Day retirement plan in the fourth quarter of 2017 and a $550,000 tax retainer which is being held by Jones Day for up to seven years to pay outstanding taxes.”
In Francisco's April 2017 financial form, he reported that Jones Day had paid him $4.6 million in his partnership share plus an earnings supplement. The amount would have covered earnings from 2016 and early 2017.
Francisco's annual disclosure reported that “Jones Day withheld $550,000 of my income as a tax retainer to pay state and foreign taxes on my behalf and attributable to my income earned while a partner of the firm.”
According to the latest disclosure, since early 2017 Francisco has sold off stocks valued at $15,000 or $50,000 or less. The bulk of the sales occurred on Sept. 22, three days after the Senate confirmed him as solicitor general.
Francisco sold off shares in major U.S. companies including Apple, Cisco Systems, Home Depot, General Electric, Alphabet, Facebook, General Dynamics. Altria Group, Microsoft, Merck & Co. and Eli Lilly.
Federal law allows government officials to sell stocks without paying capital gains taxes if the stocks are sold to avoid conflicts of interest. Francisco appears to have replaced the holdings with broader index funds and other instruments that are not under the name of specific stocks.
A search of solicitor general briefs since Francisco became acting solicitor general in January 2017 indicates that he has recused in at least eight cases in which a Jones Day lawyer has filed a brief for a party or an amicus curiae.
Francisco was among more than a dozen Jones Day lawyers who joined the Trump administration. Former partners who decamped include Donald McGahn, the White House counsel; Chad Readler, the acting head of the Justice Department's civil division and now a nominee to a federal appeals court; and Gregory Katsas, now serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Read more:
Noel Francisco, Trump's SG Nominee, Reveals Divestiture Plan in Ethics Pledge
As Sexual Abuse Scandals Mount, DC Cardinal Turns to Jones Day
Supreme Court Justices Continue to Shed Stock Holdings, New Disclosures Show
For Solicitor General Noel Francisco, It Was a Banner SCOTUS Term
Trump's Jones Day Lawyers in Get Pass to Work With Former Colleagues
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