Clarence Thomas never repaid a millionaire friend’s $267,000 loan which the Supreme Court justice used to buy a 40-foot luxury motorcoach, Senate investigators announced Wednesday.

Healthcare magnate Anthony Welters told the Senate Finance Committee he forgave the RV loan after five years of receiving payments on the interest but not the principal, the report states.

“Now we know that Justice Thomas had up to $267,230 in debt forgiven and never reported it on his ethics forms,” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, (D-OR) said in a statement.

Wyden called on Thomas to specify exactly how much of the debt he paid and whether the loan was reported on tax returns.

  • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    267K seems like such an impossibly high number that I can’t even comprehend ever having that much in dollars. For these asshole that’s just bribe money, pissed away on an RV he likely used once. And at that price it’s likely one of the nicest RV’s anyone’s ever seen.

    • abaci@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      He used it quite a bit. He put on this Everyman schtick where he didn’t need fancy trips, he just needed to RV and camp in Walmart parking lots

      The articles on it are quite hilarious to read now that we know actually he was going on lavish free trips plenty and that RV was a tremendous bribe

    • tacosplease@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If it makes you feel any better, that was $267k in the late 1990s. Value in today’s money is closer to half a million.

      Yeah that doesn’t make me feel better either.

    • SheeEttin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Really? That’s less than the median home price in the US ($412k). Especially with inflation from the past few decades, that’s not really that much money.

      • whatwhatwhatwhat@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I hope you’re joking.

        Even if you made $300k a year (which is 5 times the national average), you probably wouldn’t have $267k left after a year of housing, utilities, living expenses, taxes, transportation, healthcare, etc. Cost of living in the US is terrible.

        • JollyGreen_sasquatch@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Taxes on $300k in a year would make it impossible. Would probably have to make $400k in a year to have a chance with expenses and living frugally or 2-3 years @ $300k/year.

      • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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        1 year ago

        Do you work in IT? Maybe you should look at the median income of your country to have a more realistic idea of what is a lot.