Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas appears to have failed to repay a “significant” portion of a $267,230 loan from a friend that allowed him to buy a luxury motorcoach in 1999, according to a report released Wednesday by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee.
The committee said in a memo summarizing its heir findings that the documents it reviewed showed Thomas only paid some interest on the loan before it was forgiven. The committee also said the omission of the forgiven debt from the justice’s financial disclosure forms raises fresh questions about whether he “properly reported the associated income on his tax returns.”
The committee’s revelations are the latest to dog Thomas. The justice has come under fire in recent months from critics who charge him with skirting ethics rules by accepting lavish trips and rides on private jets without always disclosing them on his annual financial disclosures he’s required to submit.
The committee qualifies its new report by noting that “additional documents pertaining to the loan agreement may exist” but that so far “none of the documents reviewed by Committee staff indicated that Thomas ever made payments” to his friend in “excess of the annual interest on the loan.”
The New York Times first reported the congressional memorandum Wednesday and in August, on the financial arrangement between Thomas and his friend Anthony Welters, which triggered Democrats on the Senate committee to launch their investigation.
“Now we know that Justice Thomas had up to $267,230 in debt forgiven and never reported it on his ethics forms,” Chairman Ron Wyden said in a Wednesday statement.
“Regular Americans don’t get wealthy friends to forgive huge amounts of debt so they can buy a second home. Justice Thomas should inform the committee exactly how much debt was forgiven and whether…
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