For years, Clarence Thomas has been showered with gifts. Flights on a billionaire’s private jet, lavish vacations cruising on his superyacht, summer stays at his Adirondacks compound, tuition for a child Thomas was raising, a quarter-million-dollar motorhome a wealthy friend paid for.

Those gifts were income, and income belongs on a tax return. Thomas treated them as nothing, and no public record shows he ever reported a dollar of it. Under Virginia law, leaving income that size off a return, if it was done to cheat the state, is a felony. The evidence is already public, and he could be charged on Monday.

Virginia law makes it a felony to file a state income tax return with a false statement on it, made with intent to defraud the Commonwealth. The statute is Virginia Code section 58.1-348, it carries up to five years in prison per count, and the clock has not run out on the returns Thomas filed for tax years 2020 through 2024. That is the whole case, and unlike everything else, it is a case a county prosecutor in Virginia has the plain authority to bring.

  • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    3 hours ago

    The worst part of this is that even if he is convicted and removed from the judiciary, Trump gets to pick his replacement, so it will not only not fix anything but will very likely make it worse.

    • Kirp123@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 hour ago

      I mean the trial will take time and if Democrats get to control Congress after midterms they could just not confirm any of Trump’s picks. Who am I joking, the Democrats would never.

    • DomeGuy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      2 hours ago

      The least reliable members of the facist block of SCOTUS are those appointed by Mr. Trump.

      He’s really, really bad at the job.

      • qprimed@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 hour ago

        thats a pretty astute observation. still, narrowly missing a “state-level charlie kirk” because the fascists are just fucking bad at the job is not the type of comfort I hope for.