Senate Dems Want Special Prosecutor To Investigate Clarence Thomas 'Gifts'
Maybe the report could also say he's too old?
Two Democratic senators, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Ron Wyden of Oregon, wrote a letter last week to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to appoint a special counsel to investigate Clarence Thomas’s impressive array of gifts from rightwing billionaires. The senators made the letter public Tuesday.
Whitehouse and Wyden wrote that Senate investigations and public reporting have “uncovered evidence of repeated and willful omissions of gifts and income” from Thomas’s financial disclosure reports, and call for the appointment of a special prosecutor to determine whether Thomas’s acceptance of all that boodle violated federal ethics or tax laws, and also whether his spotty reporting of the gifts constituted false statements under federal law.
Beyond that, they also want the DOJ to “pursue leads of related criminal violations by donors, lenders, and intermediate corporate entities; and determine whether any such loans and gifts were provided pursuant to a coordinated enterprise or plan,” which is how you say “conspiracy” without using the word conspiracy.
Thomas has insisted that all those luxury vacations, private jet flights, and travel on Harlan Crow’s yacht were just “personal hospitality” that didn’t need to be reported, because you wouldn’t need to report it if a close personal friend bought you a Big Mac at lunch, now would you? Even if it were flown in by private helicopter and enclosed in a solid gold McDonalds container with caviar McNuggets on the side, and you got to keep the helicopter too.
Former federal judge and Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute Jeremy Fogel told the Washington Post (gift link) that yeah, sure, the DOJ has the legal authority to have a special counsel investigate a Supreme Court justice, but don’t hold your breath on that actually happening:
“Inevitably it would be seen as political retribution for rulings the justices made that they don’t like,” he said. “I just don’t know how you get out of that box.”
No comment from either the DOJ or from Thomas or his attorney, Elliot S. Berke, but the Post does note that Berke has previously said that Thomas tried his very best to comply with mandatory financial disclosure requirements:
“Justice Thomas has always strived for full transparency and adherence to the law, including with respect to what personal travel needed to be reported,” Berke said in a statement last year. He described any failures to disclose travel as “strictly inadvertent.”
After all, he’s only a Supreme Court justice, not an accountant. It’s not like knowing every last detail of the law is his job; he has clerks and flatly incorrect amicus briefs from rightwing think tanks to help him with that stuff when he’s judging. And for his own personal business, well not even the clerks can help.
Whitehouse and Wyden are particularly keen on finding out more about how it was that Thomas got a quarter-million dollar “loan” in 1999 to buy a luxury RV bus, and how that loan magically evaporated without Thomas paying it back.
An investigation by the Senate Finance Committee concluded a substantial portion of the loan from Thomas’s friend and businessman, Anthony Welters, was forgiven in 2008. The committee found Thomas failed to report the loan on his financial disclosure forms, raising questions about whether he reported it as income on his taxes as required by law.
Thomas has not previously commented publicly on the loan, but Welters told The Washington Post last year that he believed Thomas had “satisfied the loan.”
Oh, next you crazy libs will be saying bribery is illegal, when the Supreme Court keeps finding there’s no such thing as a bribe, yeesh.
[CBS News / WaPo (gift link) / ProPublica / Politico ]
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The AI-generated vehicle is only a little larger than my beloved 1973 Chevy, Vlad The Impala, which one doesn't so much "park" as "dock." Can't wait to modify the trunk with davits, from which I can hang a Kia EV6 for going-ashore parties.
The incredible thing is Hillary Clinton warned of the dangers that could be wrought by a corrupt, right wing extremist Supreme Court.
But you know, her emails.
Hillary was right. About everything.