John, keeping up with Clarence Thomas scandals is a full time job—I would know!

Since it’s my job to stay up to date on dark money developments, ethics scandals and threats to our democracy, I’ve been following each of them. Here’s one of the scandals that you may have missed:

A report from the Senate Finance Committee indicated that Justice Clarence Thomas had a significant portion—if not all—of the hefty loan forgiven by his wealthy health care industry friend, Anthony Welters.

Thomas even used his Supreme Court stationery to discuss the loan with Welters in a handwritten letter.

Welters loaned Thomas the money in 1999 to buy his 40-foot luxury motor coach. By 2008, the loan was forgiven, but there was no documentation showing Thomas actually paid it off, nor that he reported it as a forgiven debt to the IRS.

Welters has said that Thomas “satisfied” the loan in 2008, but would not clarify whether that meant it was repaid in full.

John, this is exactly the kind of scandal that’s made the public’s trust in the Court fall to all-time lows.

The Supreme Court acknowledged that reality by recently imposing an ethics code for the Court, for the first time ever. Unfortunately, the code falls short of actually imposing consequences for violations, or any enforcement mechanism. That’s why we have to keep raising the alarm about the ethics crisis on the Supreme Court, and pushing for meaningful reform.

Thank you,

Robert Maguire
Research Director
CREW