The latest example of how the justice of the UDS Supreme Court mooches off his rich friends (and one wonders if they think of him as their friend only because of his position) is the example of the luxury motor home that he ‘purchased’ 1999 with a ‘loan’ of $267,000 (which allowing for inflation would be about $500,000 now) from a millionaire who later forgave the principal on the loan.
In the case of the luxury RV – a Prevost Marathon Le Mirage XL – Welters loaned Thomas the money in 1999. The businessman told the Times: “I loaned a friend money, as I have other friends and family. We’ve all been on one side or the other of that equation.”
But on Wednesday the Senate finance committee said it had now seen documents that showed an annual interest rate of 7.5% but no obligation to pay down the principal, only annual interest payments of $20,042. The committee also said it had seen a note from Thomas promising to abide by the terms.
“None of the documents reviewed by committee staff indicated that Thomas ever made payments to Welters in excess of the annual interest on the loan,” the panel said.
As described by the Times, when the loan came due, in 2004, Welters granted a 10-year extension “despite the fact that the previous year Justice Thomas had collected $500,000 of a $1.5m advance for his autobiography, according to his financial disclosures. Then, in late 2008, Mr Welters simply forgave the balance of the loan, according to the committee’s report.”
Thomas seems to be someone who really enjoys living the high life on other people’s money. What a sleaze.
Hmm. It wouldn’t *really* be “mooching”, if it were in fact “employment”.
To be fair, it’s not very likely the people who he’s getting the money from did any more than he did to earn it. Sleazy is still a good descriptor for it but as far as I can tell being sleazy (often in poorly thought out ways) is just a Tuesday thing in rich circles.
I hope they keep going with this reporting. I’m sure it’s not limited to Thomas or Supreme Court judges, although they do seem to be particularly lacking in oversight.
Given his forthright and transparent approach to personal financial documentation, surely Mr. Thomas reported the forgiven/cancelled debt to the IRS (it is normally taxable as income: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc431).
I dont see how this term(cadger) holds. Thomas is providing services and is being paid for those services . And I would bet the billionaires think that thomas has a good ROI. Sleazy is however an apt description for Thomas
If the Dems ever get the majority to do it, Biden* should appoint a new Supreme court justice, with the job duration specificed being as long Clarence Thomas remains. As a counterweight to his corruption .
When the Republicans rail against it it will remind voters of the Republicans being pro-corruption.
*Biden was the chairman of the senate committee who cleared Clarence Thomas for the job.
He remained in the senate while Clarence Thomas openly bragged about not being apolitical, thus making a perjurer of himself as he promised the committee he would be apolitical.
Yet Biden never called for Clarence Thomas to be impeached during the periods Democrats had a majority.
Biden helped create this problem. He should clean up his own mess!