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Who is Joe Manchin's brother? Sibling sued senator who refused to pay back $1.7M loan

Best selling author Don Winslow dredged up Manchin's past in a tweet, saying: 'How much do you know about @Sen_JoeManchin's brother? You will soon'

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has been dominating the headlines lately, ever since he refused to throw his support behind President Joe Biden's 'Build Back Better' plan, which will come with a roughly $2 trillion social-spending bill. Since then, many skeletons in his closet have been brought into limelight. The latest one is how his brother, John Manchin II, had to sue the lawmaker in 2014 for failing to pay back over a milllion dollars that he had 'borrowed' from his sibling. 

The first one to dredge up Manchin's past was international best selling author Don Winslow. Taking to Twitter, he wrote, "How much do you know about @Sen_JoeManchin's brother? You will soon." Soon after, he posted a video montage about John Manchin's brother and why he chose to file a lawsuit against his own sibling. "Watch #JoeManchinsBrotherSuedHim Joe Manchin said he doesn't want to turn our society into an 'entitlement society' Joe, how many families in need in West Virginia have a brother who can loan them $1.7 million like your brother loaned you? And why did your brother sue you Joe?" Winslow captioned the montage. The video has been watched more than a million times and has over 14,000 likes.

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Who is John Manchin II?

John Manchin II is a Fairmont doctor of osteopathic medicine. He is also an owner of two medical clinics in Marion County. He filed a lawsuit against his senator brother as well as a third brother, Roch Manchin in 2014 after the latter two accepted a loan of about $1.7 million from their sibling to avoid business bankruptcy in the early 1990s, but never paid it back. Joe and Roch had agreed to give their sibling a one-third interest in coal holdings at the time to convince John to delay legal action to collect on the debt. However, Joe and Roch did not deliver on that promise. The pair instead moved the financial holdings from a general partnership involving all three brothers to one, controlled by the senator, Roch Manchin and the senator’s son, the filing contended at the time. 

The lawsuit claimed violation of the Uniform Partnership Act, unjust enrichment, constructive fraud, imposition of constructive and resulting trust, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and civil conspiracy and sought compensation, including interest, both pre- and post-judgment. It also sought to set up a trust on “all of the assets and business interests implicated in this case following a thorough and complete accounting.”

The very next year, however, John filed for the dismissal of the lawsuit. Attorney Mike Benninger, who was representing Dr. Manchin at the time, refused to comment on why John had decided to drop the charges. “A dismissal has been filed and I can’t comment on the reason or purpose for it,” Benninger said. It was dismissed with prejudice, which meant that the plaintiff was not allowed to file another case on the same claim.