JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri Republican Party today demanded that Claire McCaskill disclose publicly the exact ownership interests in all real property she and her husband own after her Washington D.C. lawyer Marc Elias admitted that McCaskill’s husband does have an ownership interest in the Festus Gardens Apartments even though the ownership was not included in her financial disclosure report to the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee.

The Missouri Republican Party filed a 10-page ethics complaint against Claire McCaskill on Wednesday, documenting the myriad of ways in which McCaskill has failed to comply with federal financial disclosure laws. As an example of the McCaskill failure to disclose property, the Missouri GOP traced the public records that demonstrate McCaskill’s husband Joseph Shepard owns a portion of the Festus Gardens Apartments in Festus, Mo. In response to the ethics complaint, McCaskill complained to The Kansas City Star that the she found the Senate Ethics forms “confusing.”

“We selected one of hundreds of properties to prove in black and white that McCaskill is violating the disclosure laws and included it in our complaint and the lawyer who advised McCaskill in preparing the report admitted to the media that, in fact, McCaskill’s family does have an ownership interest in Festus Gardens,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “The Democrats’ tireless efforts to hide information about Claire McCaskill’s financial reports apparently include misstatements of law even by their lawyers in Washington.”

Federal financial reporting laws require that the identity and category of value of any interest in property held during the preceding calendar year in a trade or business, or for investment or the production of income, which has a fair market value which exceeds $1,000 as of the close of the preceding calendar year, must be reported. McCaskill’s financial disclosure report reflects hundreds of assets with little or no value, virtually no ‘reportable’ real property interests, little or no income and no liabilities.

McCaskill reported an interest in Festus Associates I, LP, the limited partnership that owns Festus Gardens Apartments, but reports no ownership interest in the apartment complex itself. McCaskill’s lawyer also acknowledged to the media that her report reflected no liabilities associated with any of the assets inappropriately comparing the failure to report any debts as though the assets were “IBM stock”. IBM is publicly traded but the relevant rules relate to non-publicly traded assets.

“The laws are clear, even though McCaskill’s reports are not. This is what is required and this is what we again ask McCaskill: disclose what you own and where you and your family generate your enormous wealth,” Sloca said. “Disclose what government loans and subsidies and tax credits you own. That is what the financial disclosure laws demand and what the public is entitled to know. The only reason Claire wouldn’t release this information is if she is hiding something.”