two leading democratic senators Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is being urged to reveal whether he repaid any principal on a $267,230 loan a wealthy friend used to buy a luxury motor home.
The letter sent to Thomas’ attorneys on Tuesday raised questions about possible tax violations by the conservative judge, the longest-serving justice on the Supreme Court.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., claimed in the letter that Thomas never repaid his friend Anthony Welter Anthony Welters lent him most of the principal, and Thomas did not say whether the loan was forgiven.
“The failure to report such income from forgiven debts in any of Judge Thomas’ financial disclosure reports raises the possibility that Judge Thomas also failed to report such forgiveness as tax income as required by federal law,” the senators wrote in the letter. sex.
New York Times first reported In August 1999, Thomas borrowed money from his close friend Welters to pay for his 1999 Prevost Le Mirage XL Marathon, a luxury motor home.
this senate finance committeeWyden serves as chairman, Discovered in October The new letter states that Vertes “stopped collecting” principal or interest on the loan at the end of 2008.
“It appears that the loan principal was never repaid before all payments ceased,” the letter said.
Thomas’ attorney Elliot Burke, told senators in january The judge has paid Vertes the money “until the terms of the agreement are fully satisfied”.
Wyden and Whitehouse called Burke’s response “no answer” in their Tuesday letter.
“‘Satisfied’ can have many meanings when it comes to repaying, forgiving, or canceling a debt,” the senators said in their letter.
“There should be a simple answer as to whether Justice Thomas discharged hundreds of thousands in debt so that he could retain ownership of a luxury coach that doubled as a second home,” the senators wrote.
The letter states that if Thomas’ debt to Welters is canceled, forgiven or forgiven for an amount less than what he owes, Thomas will have to report that amount as income on his tax return.
“At this time, Judge Thomas has done absolutely nothing to dispel the perception that he may have failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in forgiven debt on his federal income tax returns and failed to pay the income taxes owed,” the letter said.
“The possibility that members of the Supreme Court have committed such serious tax violations warrants investigation,” Wyden and Whitehouse wrote. senate judiciary committeeSubcommittee on Federal Courts.
Senators gave Berke until June 3 to respond to clarify the terms of the loan and repayment.
Burke did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The investigation is just part of a larger ethical controversy surrounding Thomas.
ProPublica reported in April 2023 that the conservative judge had accepted luxury vacations from Republican billionaire Harlan Crow for decades, in apparent violation of financial disclosure laws.
Later reports also found that Harlan paid Thomas’s grandnephew’s tuition.
Democrats also called on Thomas to recuse himself from considering an appeal by former President Donald Trump, saying he was immune from prosecution in a federal criminal case over election interference. Democrats pointed to reports that his wife, Ginni Thomas, was involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
On April 25, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Trump’s immunity appeal, with Thomas sitting on the bench.
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