Folks, here’s a story ‘bout Clarence the moocher
He is a black-robed business booster
Puttin’ his integrity up for sale
Landed Clarence an RV as big as a whale
(With apologies to Cab Calloway.)
Another day, another story about Clarence Thomas taking money from wealthy people who certainly didn’t see any benefit to having a Supreme Court Justice in their debt.
Thomas is so openly corrupt and the reporting about it so thorough that when you account for Chief Justice Roberts’ abject refusal lift a finger to curb this kind of malfeasance, it really takes something extra special to bring any one story to the fore. This has that special something.
This RV is the cornerstone of mythology Thomas is building around himself. Thomas told people that he bought this $267,230 leviathan by “scrimp[ing] and sav[ing].” But that cornerstone is made of sand. He bought the RV with someone else’s money, loaned to him in a sweetheart deal that no bank would have offered.
Of course Thomas never reported any of this. The law on reporting money privately loaned to a public official like Thomas only exempts loans that are thoroughly documented and tracked by the parties, and the terms of which are similar to what a bank would have offered. Deviations from those criteria tilt the loan over into the area of gifts that must be reported.
Does the man ever spend his own money on anything?