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The adopted son of House Speaker Mike Johnson has had a series of run-ins with law enforcement for crimes ranging from drug possession to theft since leaving the care of the Louisiana Republican congressman and his wife Kelly, records show, but he has since turned his life around.
The Johnsons met Michael T. James, now 40, when he was a teenager while the couple was doing charity work for a Christian ministry in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1996.
The newlyweds took the then-troubled 14-year-old into their home and filed court papers to become his legal guardians in 1999 after James became homeless.
However, after the Johnsons moved from Baton Rouge to Mike’s hometown of Shreveport in 2002, James stayed behind and left on his own, as he was then a legal adult.
Since 2003, James has been arrested more than a dozen times, according to records reviewed by The Post.
Charges against him in Florida range from possession of marijuana and cocaine, theft, possession of a concealed weapon, violation of a protective order and drug possession.
He was twice sentenced to prison, serving 37 days for possession of cocaine in 2003 and 30 days in 2007 for retail theft. He was also court-ordered to take an anger management course in 2017.
James is believed to have moved to several places during this time period, sometimes living with his biological mother and older brother, moving to Florida and Texas.
Additional court documents reviewed by The Post show James was charged with theft in 2003 while living in Houston. However, the case was dismissed in 2013.
Mike Johnson, 51, told The Post in a statement Friday that, “I believe God intended Michael to be a part of our lives. Kelly and I always saw him as one of our own.
“Despite all the mistakes he made, we love Michael and are blessed to have him in our family.”
The Johnsons have four biological children besides James.
When a Post reporter went to the last listed address for James in Carson, Calif., this week, a woman said he hadn’t lived at the house in months but was still involved in the lives of his four children.
“If the Johnsons hadn’t taken me in as a teenager, my life would look very different today,” James told DailyMail.com this week. “I probably would have been in jail or I might not have made it at all.”
Sources told The Post that James has long been committed to turning his life around and works as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) in California.