Senate Democrats are still looking for answers about a loan given to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas two decades ago, which he used to purchase a luxury R.V. In a letter to Thomas’s attorney, obtained by The New Republic, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said that Justice Thomas has never disclosed whether the $267,000 loan from his buddy Anthony Welters, was paid back or forgiven. If it was forgiven, in full or in part, it constitutes “a significant amount of taxable income,” the Democrats wrote. Welters, a millionaire healthcare executive, cooperated with Senate investigators after the hefty loan was first reported, but would only say the loan had been “satisfied.” Finance committee investigators determined that some of the interest had been paid back, the rest of the loan had been forgiven. While Thomas’s lawyer, Elliot Berke responded to the Dems request, he failed to definitively state if his client repaid the loan’s principal. Justice Thomas has been the focus of judicial ethics concerns since it was reported that he received luxury trips and vacations from wealthy right-wing donor Harlan Crow.
