WASHINGTON − Democratic senators want more answers from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas about a $267,000 loan he received in 1999 to purchase a high-end motorhome.
Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island wrote in a letter to Thomas’ attorney Wednesday that the justice has evaded answering whether he’s repaid any of the loan.
That leaves open the possibility, the senators said, that Thomas failed to report to the IRS − and pay taxes on − any part of the loan that was forgiven.
“The possibility of a serious tax violation of this kind by a member of the Supreme Court warrants investigation,” they wrote.
Wyden leads, and Whitehouse is a member of, the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax issues.
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Thomas’ lawyer, Elliot Berke, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He previously told the committee that Thomas “has fully complied with all judicial disclosure rules on this matter.”
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Thomas received the loan, which was reported by the New York Times in August, from Anthony Welters, a healthcare executive and close friend of the Supreme Court justice. The RV Thomas purchased with the loan was equipped with a kitchen, leather seating, a bedroom and donned an orange flame motif and a pegasus painted on the back.
The Finance Committee’s Democrats issued a report in October saying all or most of the loan Thomas received appeared to have been forgiven but Thomas had not reported any such forgiveness as income on his financial disclosure report.
Berke, told the committee in January that Thomas made “payments to Mr. Welters on a regular basis until the terms of the agreement were satisfied in full.”
But “satisfied” could mean many things, the Democrats said.
“There should be a simple answer as to whether Justice Thomas had hundreds of thousands of debt forgiven so that he could retain possession of a luxury motor coach that doubles as a second home,” they wrote.
They asked for a detailed response by June 3.
In Berke’s January letter to the committee, he declined to provide additional information “due to the separation of powers concerns it raises and the importance of preserving the independence of our federal judiciary.”
In addition to the loan scrutiny, Thomas has been the center of recent criticisms of the justices’ acceptance of expensive travel. The court announced in November it would adopt a code of conduct after a series of stories detailing travel Thomas accepted from GOP donor Harlan Crow, as well as revelations that Alito flew to Alaska for a fishing trip on a private jet in 2008 that belonged to a hedge fund manager who repeatedly brought cases before the high court.
Speaking at a recent judicial conference, Thomas said Washington, D.C., is a “hideous place” where people “bomb your reputation or your good name or your honor.”
Contributing: Ken Tran.