Clarence moneybags Thomas, put him up full mass. I mean, damn. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, back in the news again. Why? Because he got some more money we didn't know about. [00:00:16] He failed to repay a significant portion of, let's say, a loan, $267,230, from a friend that allowed him to buy [00:00:32] a luxury motorcoach in 1999. So according to a memo issued by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, this is a hell of a story. According to a new report, back in 1999, Thomas entered [00:00:49] into an agreement with Welters, who personally loaned him money to help finance the purchase of this really bougie RV, okay? A Prevost Marathon motorcoach. Welters told the Times this summer that the loan was ultimately satisfied in 2008, [00:01:09] but the new report offers more details about the transactions. In the report released by the committee, its staff said they received more information about the loan, including a handwritten note from Thomas on Supreme Court stationery dated December 6, 1999. [00:01:26] The documents included a promissory note detailing that the principal balance of the note had an interest rate of 7.5% a year. In 2004, the loan was extended for ten years. According to the summary, committee staff reviewed a note from Welters in 2008 that stated [00:01:44] that Thomas had been paying him interest only on the vehicle for many years. And that Welters would no longer seek payment because he believed that Thomas had paid interest greater than the purchase price of the bus, there's more. According to the report, Welters did not feel it was appropriate [00:02:01] to continue to accept payments even though he had the right to them. But the committee staff said that, quote, none of the documents reviewed by the staff indicate that Thomas ever made payments to Welters in excess of the annual interest on the loan. [00:02:16] Based on the documents reviewed by the committee staff, Anthony Welters, forgave a substantial amount, or even all of the principal balance of his loan to Clarence Thomas. Constituting of the forgiveness of [00:02:33] approximately $267,230 of debt owed by Justice Thomas, the report includes. Now, I wanna say this, people say, well, what's the big deal about forgiving a loan? [00:02:49] Okay, here's the big deal, that means you just gave a Supreme Court justice a quarter of a million dollars. Who's in the business of giving a Supreme Court justice a quarter of a million dollars without purchasing something? [00:03:05] And that is the issue, that's the ethical issue you have. What did he buy with that a quarter of a million dollars? All right, so Thomas lawyer disputes the claim. But hours after the report appeared on the committee's website, a lawyer for Thomas [00:03:21] disputed its findings in a rest statement, quote, the loan was never forgiven. Elliot S Berke, a lawyer for Thomas, said in a statement, adding that, quote, any suggestion to the contrary is false. Berke's statement appeared at ODS with the committee's findings that Thomas has made [00:03:37] all payments to Mr. Welters on a regular basis until the terms of the agreement were satisfied in full, he said. Berke declined to provide any additional evidence or information to that statement. Attorneys can do that, all right? Okay, more money, more money, more money, [00:03:55] it stretches back to the beginning, all the way to now. This seems to be a practice and culture. All right, thoughts? >> Speaker 3: Yeah, who's gonna make him pay the money? Who's gonna hold Clarence Thomas accountable? Will Congress impeach him? [00:04:11] Are they gonna take away his salary? They're not gonna, they would have done it by now. Clarence Thomas isn't worried about consequences, he's only worried about himself and his money and his wife Ginni. He just wants his money however he gets it, he doesn't care about the ethics behind it. And he is in an extremely unique and elite position in this country to know he really [00:04:29] can kinda get away with it, and that's what we're seeing. >> Speaker 1: Yeah. Hell of a thing. Congressman Hank Johnson, to note the record, has presented legislation to remove this individual and to also hold him accountable for the action.