U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas still hasn't revealed whether he repaid a six-figure loan from a wealthy friend to purchase a recreational vehicle decades ago.
Anthony Welters, a wealthy health care executive and the justice's personal friend, loaned $267,000 to Thomas in 1999 to buy the RV in which he and his wife Ginni use to travel the country, and Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse sent a letter to his attorney seeking clarity on whether the loan was repaid or forgiven, reported the New Republic.
“Your client’s refusal to clarify how the loan was resolved raises serious concerns regarding violations of federal tax laws,” the letter states.
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Last summer the New York Times revealed the loan, which Welters said was "satisfied," and the senators said it should have been reported as taxable income if it had been forgiven all or in part, and the Senate Finance Committee that Wyden chairs has been seeking information about the loan since the story broke.
Welters provided some documents to the committee that sowed that Thomas had paid back some of the interest, and they indicated the loan may have been forgiven in 2008 – although the justice did not report that on his financial disclosure report from that year.
Thomas attorney Elliott Berke responded to questions from Wyden and Whitehouse with a letter that claimed the justice had “made all payments” on a “regular basis until the terms of the agreement were satisfied in full,” and asserted that he complied with judicial disclosure requirements.
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However, Wyden said, that doesn't make clear whether the payments covered only the interest, as opposed to paying off the principal, and if Welters had forgiven the principal then Thomas should have reported that as income.
“This raises the question of whether this justice is in compliance with federal tax law, which requires a disclosure of forgiven debt and taxable income,” Wyden said. “The central question is: Did he ever repay the principal?”
Thomas has accepted numerous luxury vacations and other perks from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow without disclosing them, which the justice insists he was not required to report, but Wyden said the jurist and his colleagues must maintain higher ethical standards.
“We’re giving the justice the opportunity to clear this huge mess up,” Wyden said. “Nobody in this country is above the law. Not even Supreme Court justices.”
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