Q: Could “Corrupt” Clarence Go Down For The Same Reason As Trump?

ProPublica just blew the roof off of corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s house of sticks. It turns out that even with the laxest ethics rules on the planet, Ginni’s Goon was either incapable of obeying simple instructions, or so special a snowflake that they didn’t apply to him.

This can be a wee confusing, but I’ll try to keep it easy. Following Nixon’s Watergate kerfuffle, congress passed an ethics law that for a change even applied to Supreme Court Justices. It also applied to federal judges, as well as House and Senate members. And since it also applied to them, it had a built in grift.

Basically everybody has to at least declare on federal financial disclosure forms and gifts above a particular value. This could end up taxable. And nothing is a bigger bummer than getting some really kewl stuff, and then having to pay taxes on it.

Here’s the grift. The category of hospitality is exempt from taxation. Which is why you hear so often about congress critters, and especially SCOTUS members heading off to exclusive resorts on vacation. Because hospitality is generally defined to mean lodging, food and entertainment. But taxable or not, the junket mist be reported on the federal disclosures.

And that’s where Sticky Fingers Thomas comes a cropper. For more than 20 years now, Thomas and his wife have been globe trotting on the dime of real estate mogul and GOP super donor Harlan Crow. But every time that Thomas went on a trip that could be eligible for federal taxes, he simply said Screw It, and didn’t bother to list the trip on his disclosure forms. And just BTQ, failure to disclose carries a potential penalty of $50,000 for each violation. And Thomas has been pulling this scam for 20 years now.

Here’s the ProPublica example. In late June of 2019, Thomas and his dingbat wife Ginni boarded a large private jet owned by Crow to pootle off to Indonesia for a nine day vacation in Indonesia. On arrival, whey were whisked by private limousine to the port, where they boarded Crow’s 162 foot super yacht for nine days of island hopping around the Archipelago. Nice work if you can get it.

But here’s where Thomas starts to slide over the invisible line, and into Trump territory. Like every federal regulation or law, there is oodles of fine print. And in the hospitality section, there is one part that sticks out like a sore thumb. Private transportation substituted for normal transportation is exempt. According to ProPublica, if Thomas had chartered the plane and super yacht himself, the cost would have exceeded $500,000. And according to the rule, both of those forms of travel would be exempt under the hospitality clause. Which would make them taxable income he had to report on his annual taxes.

And as ProPublica pointed out, while Thomas’s omission of the hospitality gifts could carry a $50,000 per offense penalty, he regularly made use of Crow’s private jet, super yacht or both for his travel. And those are exempt from the hospitality, meaning that he would have to declare the fair market value on his taxes. And he hasn’t. For 20 years.

As we speak, Traitor Tot is an indicted defendant in Manhattan for criminal tax fraud. Wouldn’t the irony be delicious if his favorite supporter in a black muumuu were to find himself behind a defendants table for the same damn thing, for not declaring the private travel on his taxes? And Thomas’s overt corruption has thrown more mud over Chief Justice John Roberts’ robe than even Sam Alito. Roberts could sacrifice Thomas and still have a 5-4 majority, and unchain himself from the Capone of the Court. Gee, maybe Roberts will get him a Bon Voyage fruit basket?