Wheels of Controversy: Clarence Thomas and the RV Affair
“Clarence Thomas’s $267,230 R.V. and the Friend Who Financed It” – NY Times
Follow themoney, questionable property deals, favors and luxury trips flowing to the Supreme Court justices with this relationship map. Can you track who was the Co-CEO of the Carlyle group when the group’s board director helped Thomas purchase the R.V.? Who donated to the GOP and helped stack the Supreme Court with extremist partisan justices? Can you spot five billionaires? Who was the anonymous donor who paid off $60,000 credit card debts for Brett Kavanaugh? The new additions to the map about the RV and Anthony Welters are based on today’s article in the NY Times).
Follow the money ( … luxury trips, property transactions and luxury RVs)
Lavish gifts
“But there is an untold, and far more complex, back story to Justice Thomas’s R.V. — one that not only undercuts the mythology but also leaves unanswered a host of questions about whether the justice received, and failed to disclose, a lavish gift from a wealthy friend. His Prevost Marathon cost $267,230, according to title history records obtained by The New York Times. And Justice Thomas, who in the ensuing years would tell friends how he had scrimped and saved to afford the motor coach, did not buy it on his own. In fact, the purchase was underwritten, at least in part, by Anthony Welters, a close friend who made his fortune in the health care industry.” – NY Times
Missing: Supreme Court Code of Ethics
“They should adopt the same code of ethics as every other federal judge in America,” Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who has sponsored new ethics legislation, said last month. “The disclosures that have come out recently… really compel us to do something for the sake of the court.”“They should adopt the same code of ethics as every other federal judge in America. Those nine members of the Supreme Court are being treated differently—in fact they’re being exempt from requirements that face members of Congress and other federal judges. The disclosures that have come out recently … really compel us to do something for the sake of the court.The rules and proposals we’re making for a code of ethics and disclosure will apply to every single Supreme Court Justice. Whether they were appointed by a Democratic president or a Republican president, it makes no difference when it comes to ethics.I was hoping it would be done by the Court, for the sake of the Court. And Chief Justice Roberts, it is his court … And what we have now, sadly, is a report that the Supreme Court is at the lowest ebb in terms of public opinion of their honesty and integrity. The Supreme Court doesn’t own an army … It has its reputation and the reputation has to be preserved.” – Washington Post
Make sense of things with a Relationship Map
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. But it is hard to shed lights on relationships with dark money, undisclosed transactions and clever lawyers involved. Who is doing what for whom? What are they getting in return? That’s where a relationship map like this one designed with the free Kumu app comes in handy. It displays the people involved. How they are connected to others? What favors are being exchanged?Use a relationship map like any other map to navigate through the relationships.
Click on any face, company or favor to see the details which appear in a side panel.
You can zoom in or out of the map.
Choose the FOCUS button to just show all the relationships of the person selected.
Use the FILTER buttons at the top to see all the connections of Clarence Thomas (say) on the map.
Share the map freely with this link: https://embed.kumu.io/35b4f73ce74d6daa11adf9b6ca815a15
Embed the map freely with this code: “<iframe src=”https://embed.kumu.io/35b4f73ce74d6daa11adf9b6ca815a15″ width=”940″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>”
This Relationship maps has been updated several times over the last three months as more Supreme Court scandals emerge.
TakeAway: Call your Senator to demand they support a Code of Ethics for the Supreme Court. No one is above the law. Not even Supreme Court justices with luxury RVs.Deepak
DemLabsDISCLAIMER: ALTHOUGH THE DATA FOUND IN THIS BLOG AND INFOGRAPHIC HAS BEEN PRODUCED AND PROCESSED FROM SOURCES BELIEVED TO BE RELIABLE, NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED CAN BE MADE REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, LEGALITY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY SUCH INFORMATION. THIS DISCLAIMER APPLIES TO ANY USES OF THE INFORMATION WHETHER ISOLATED OR AGGREGATE USES THEREOF.
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Reposted from Democracy Labs with permission.
