Speaker Mike Johnson Lives In DC House With A Pastor Leading A Secretive Influence Campaign

By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, February 28, 2025

In 2021, Steve Berger, an evangelical pastor who has attacked the separation of church and pronounce as “a delusional lie” and known as multinational institutions “demonic,” role off on an valorous challenge. His said just: minister to members of Congress so that what “they learn is then translated into policy.” His deplorable of operations would be a six-mattress room, $3.7 million townhouse blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

No longer too long ago, the pastor scored a excellent coup for a political affect challenge that has unless now managed to steer particular of public scrutiny. He got a brand fresh roommate.

Residence Speaker Mike Johnson has been staying at the dwelling since around the origin of this 365 days, in step with interviews and videos bought by ProPublica.

The residence is owned by a critical Republican donor and Tennessee vehicle magnate who has joined Berger in advocating for and against more than one payments earlier than Congress.

Over the final four years, Berger and his wife, Sarah Berger, enjoy devoted themselves to what they call their D.C. “ministry center.” Moreover to to Johnson, who is an evangelical conservative, the pastor has built shut relationships with lots of diversified influential conservative politicians. Dan Bishop, now nominated for a extremely effective post in the Trump White Residence, looks to enjoy also lived in the residence final 365 days while he was once restful a congressman, in step with three of us.

A spokesperson for Johnson mentioned that the speaker “pays magnificent market cost in month-to-month lease for the share of the Washington, D.C. townhome that he occupies.” He did no longer resolution a request about how powerful Johnson is paying. Residence ethics principles permit members of Congress to reside anyplace, as long as they’re paying magnificent-market lease.

The spokesperson added that Johnson “has by no come once spoken to Mr. Berger about any share of laws or any topic of public policy.” Berger and Bishop did no longer respond to requests for comment.

The Bergers enjoy described their mission as galvanizing political allies to rob action. “It’s appropriate iron sharpening iron,” Sarah Berger mentioned on a podcast final summer, explaining the couple’s come to political affect. “Love, ‘Oh yeah, that’s why I’m standing company on this policy.’”

Steve Berger claims to enjoy in my conception spurred laws. “It’s a humbling part,” he mentioned in a sermon in late 2022. “You rep a text message from a senator that says: ‘Thanks for your inspiration. Because it has led to me now to originate a bill that is going to extra righteousness on this nation.’”

Berger’s pursuits prolong beyond his staunch social conservatism. He and the donor who owns the dwelling, Lee Beaman, enjoy publicly advocated together for rather about a explicit policy changes, including a bill that will compose it simpler to fireplace federal workers and a laws that will reduce gas efficiency standards for the car industry. After the 2020 election, they every signed a letter declaring that President Donald Trump was once the rightful winner and calling for Congress to overturn the outcomes.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, did no longer respond to questions on how he ended up staying at the dwelling. Beaman did no longer respond to requests for comment.

The earliest date ProPublica was once ready to substantiate Johnson being at the Berger dwelling was once in mid-December. A video reviewed by ProPublica reveals Johnson visiting the dwelling on Dec. 15 with two ladies who seem like his wife and daughter. They lingered outdoors earlier than entering, while Johnson pointed around the building and down to the basement entrance as if he was once giving a tour. Two days later, Berger despatched a reveal to his supporters on social media: “I so wish I’ll perhaps perhaps repeat you your whole massive doorways that broke birth this week.”

For the explanation that origin of the 365 days, videos and interviews showcase, Johnson has frequently left the dwelling in the morning and returned in the night. In some unspecified time in the future that Johnson was once there fair no longer too long ago, Berger was once also at the dwelling, opening the front door barefoot in pajama bottoms. (It looks Johnson also can fair essentially be staying in the residence’s two-mattress room basement.)

Washington pieds-à-terre can indicate a significant expense for members of Congress as they split time between the capital and their dwelling districts. Johnson is much less filthy rich than many varied lawmakers. He worked at conservative nonprofits earlier than he entered public provider, and on his most up-to-date monetary disclosure form he did no longer reveal a single asset. When Johnson was once elevated to the speakership in 2023, news experiences indicated that somewhat than renting an residence, he also can fair be slumbering in his web site of business. (Lawmakers must file money owed, earnings and lots monetary holdings on disclosure forms however aren’t required to list living payments admire lease.)

The Berger residence is in an upscale D.C. neighborhood chubby of lobbyists and corporate attorneys. Despite the indisputable truth that it’s no longer particular what the dwelling’s basement would ranking on the birth market, it’s no longer uncommon for 2-bedrooms in the residence to lease for as powerful as $7,000 a month. Reductions on lease are in overall prohibited by Residence ethics principles as infamous items, consultants mentioned.

In sermons and on social media, Berger has mentioned about a of the issues he’s discussed with Johnson and diversified members of Congress. Last 365 days, Berger, a passionate supporter of the Israeli fair-skim, mentioned he’d had “a wide dialog” with the speaker about Israel.

No longer too long ago, Johnson has described his conversations with Trump to the pastor, in step with Berger. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Berger mentioned in a sermon that he’d urged “some congressmen” to scrutinize the battle thru the lens of Ezekiel 38 and 39, parts of the Bible some peek as prophesying a wide battle earlier than the 2d Coming. He did no longer specify what that intended from a policy level of view.

An packed with life 60-365 days-usual with a white goatee and penchant for preaching in sneakers and jeans, Berger has sturdy views on a wide resolution of points, including financial policy and public health. He is vehemently opposed to the World Successfully being Organization, which Trump moved to withdraw the U.S. from final month, and fair no longer too long ago predicted that COVID-19 vaccines will lead to “children shedding ineffective all over.” He attacked the World Economic Dialogue board at size in a fresh sermon, accusing it of “taking advantage” of COVID-19 “to place into effect their satanic web site.”

Berger will likely be against comparable-intercourse marriage, announcing “it opens the door to all manner of sexual depravity and wickedness” — despite the indisputable truth that he has mentioned he has “guests who’re practicing homosexuals, of us I care about.” He opposes homosexuality and “heterosexual sin” in equal measures, he’s mentioned, referring to acts admire searching at pornography and intercourse between unmarried adults.

Berger’s operation is organized as a nonprofit known as Ambassador Services and products Worldwide, which runs on a budget of round $1 million per 365 days, in step with tax filings. The residence where it’s miles registered in Washington — and where Johnson has been staying — was once purchased in early 2021. Once the dwelling of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and later housing the Smithsonian Museum of African Art work, it was once advertised at the time as a “four-degree 2d Empire-vogue townhouse of impeccable class and distinctive scale,” offering “bespoke tranquility in a coveted role.”

The patron was once Crockett Ventures LLC. Corporate filings showcase its sole owner is Beaman, the donor and businessman, who built a fortune on a sequence of car dealerships started by his father. He has given millions to Republican political teams, including wide donations to the Trump marketing campaign and political committees for the Heritage Basis and the Residence Freedom Caucus. He’s also served because the treasurer of a congressional marketing campaign.

Beaman was once once so bored stiff with the constraints that got right here with owning a condo on a “authorities-controlled lake” that he offered a sprawling property with a 50-acre personal lake of its possess, in step with a profile in an structure e book. He grew to radically change a fixture of Nashville media in fresh years thanks to sordid allegations made by his fourth wife at some stage in their divorce, including that he made her test up on what he known as “coaching movies” of him having intercourse with a prostitute. Beaman’s lawyers wrote at the time that his wife’s filing contained “impertinent and noxious topic easiest intended to annoy Mr. Beaman.”

Beaman has attended a Tennessee church that Berger founded, however it absolutely’s no longer particular what role, if any, he plays in the pastor’s affect challenge in Washington. It’s also unclear whether or no longer the pastor’s nonprofit pays for the state of the Capitol Hill townhouse.

Berger got right here to prominence in his dwelling pronounce because the longtime pastor of Grace Chapel, a wide church outdoors Nashville whose members enjoy integrated the sizzling governor of the pronounce. In 2021, Berger left the church and he and his wife launched their challenge in Washington.

He almost at the moment started Bible explore classes with senators, representatives and congressional aides, in step with the Bergers. Meanwhile, Sarah Berger spent her time “in relationship with and pouring into the lives of congressional wives,” tax filings explain.

Steve Berger fleet made connections at the absolute most practical stages of the Republican Celebration.

“Hear, I even enjoy confessed issues to Steve that I wouldn’t on the whole confess to someone else,” Tag Meadows, a White Residence chief of workers in the critical Trump administration who remains essentially the most necessary ally of the president, mentioned at a 2023 match with Berger. “We now enjoy been praying together, having a Bible explore every and each week. No longer appropriate me, however lots of members of Congress.”

A crew of congressmen gathered on stage together to talk at the pastor’s sixtieth-birthday birthday celebration in October, including Bishop, Earn. Barry Moore, Earn. Andy Ogles and Earn. Warren Davidson. All four are fresh or broken-down members of the hardline conservative Residence Freedom Caucus. (No longer one in all the four replied to requests for comment.)

Evidence means that Bishop also fair no longer too long ago lived at the Capitol Hill townhouse. Three neighbors urged ProPublica that the FBI visited them this month asking about Bishop, apparently as piece of the background test for his White Residence job. “They mentioned that address,” mentioned one neighbor, including that the agent confirmed a photo of Bishop. “They mentioned: ‘He lived there as much as a couple months ago. Stay you admire him?’”

Trump has nominated Bishop to be deputy director of the Residence of business of Management and Budget, the extremely effective White Residence web site of business that fair no longer too long ago moved to freeze funding streams across the federal authorities. Berger illustrious the nomination on Instagram: “I’d love to congratulate my expensive buddy and brother, Congressman Dan Bishop, for accepting this unbelievable different.”

Correction

Feb. 28, 2025: This chronicle at the birth incorrectly mentioned Steve Berger and Dan Bishop did respond to requests for comment. They did no longer respond.

Jeff Frankl contributed research.

Editor’s reveal: This text was once republished from ProPublica below a Creative Commons license.