On ethics, the Supreme Court justice has lost the benefit of the doubt.
Is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas a tax cheat? His lawyer insists not. The available evidence suggests this is a fair question.about a $267,000 loan from Thomas’s friend Anthony Welters that enabled the justice and his wife to buy a luxury motor home. “Any suggestion to the contrary is false. The Thomases made all payments to Mr. Welters on a regular basis until the terms of the agreement were satisfied in full.
of his grandnephew — has forfeited the benefit of the doubt. If Thomas, as Berke asserts, indeed “satisfied in full” the terms of his loan agreement, then let’s see “the agreement.” Let’s see the canceled checks.Three cheers here for congressional oversight and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden .
The finance committee investigation filled in important blanks — and underscored the reasons for skepticism about the transaction and Thomas’s compliance with both tax law and financial disclosure rules.Its analysis detailed that the agreed-on interest rate — 7.5 percent — appears to be fair and was based on market rates at the time, even if the interest-only arrangement is unusual.
“The committee’s investigation is clear: The person who loaned Justice Thomas $267,000 provided numerous documents indicating that a substantial portion of that debt was never repaid,” Wyden said in a statement to me. “If Justice Thomas disputes that conclusion, he has an obligation to provide proof to the committee. Carefully worded statements from high-priced lawyers are not a substitute for facts.”The puzzle here is that there doesn’t seem to be any ethical problem with the underlying loan.
A man entrusted with interpreting the nation’s tax laws should be capable of following them, and we are entitled to know whether he has complied with that duty.
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