Republican hits Clarence Thomas with. lawsuit over his taxes

MicroWave@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 345 points – Exclusive: Republican hits Clarence Thomas with. lawsuit over his taxes
newsweek.com

Republican John Anthony Castro is filing a lawsuit against Clarence Thomas, accusing the U.S. Supreme Court associate justice of failing to file his income taxes, Newsweek has learned.

Castro, a long-shot Republican presidential candidate and tax attorney who filed a flurry of lawsuits seeking to remove former President Donald Trump from the GOP primary ballot, told Newsweek that he is filing suit against Thomas in a Virginia court under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (VFATA). Although he mailed the complaint to the court on Friday, he expects it to take two business days for the court to process and file the case.

The complaint, which was shared with Newsweek, alleges that in violation of VFATA, "Clarence Thomas knowingly presented or caused to be presented a false and fraudulent claim (i.e., his 2005 Virginia State Income Tax Return) to the Virginia Department of Taxation on or about April 15, 2016, that failed to report income from discharge of indebtedness."

Thomas has faced immense scrutiny and calls for his resignation after it was reported that he failed to disclose several transactions, including a $267,230 loan that he received from wealthy friend Anthony Welters. Last year, an investigation from the Senate Finance Committee revealed that Thomas never repaid a "substantial portion" of that loan, raising concerns about whether the justice properly reported it in his tax filings.

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Something sounds sus about all this:

Castro said he had planned to file the suit last year but claims that Trump coordinated with the Internal Revenue Service in retaliation against his activities "undermining the political objectives of the Trump Administration."

"Right when I'm going to level these accusations against Clarence Thomas for filing false and fraudulent returns, what happens to me? I get accused of false and fraudulent returns," Castro said.

"They intentionally devised this plan of, 'Let's accuse him of what he's about to accuse Clarence Thomas of, it's going to completely discredit him. And if he brings this claim, nobody's going to believe him," he continued. "But, of course, I still want to go forward with it."

He sounds like a wacko. But if it takes a wacko to expose what Thomas is doing, I guess I'll allow it.

He sounds like a wacko

He sounds like he knows how the republican party operates. They do shit like this all the time. Literally ALL the time, constantly.

If somehow Trump was able to direct the IRS after leaving office, though, that's a bigger story than a corrupt SC justice

"A Republican named Castro caring enough about rich and powerful people paying their taxes to sue Clarence Thomas" is probably the least likely combination of words I've ever written but here we are!

Mmm…starting to eat their own, are we? Pass the popcorn. This I gotta see.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Castro, a long-shot Republican presidential candidate and tax attorney who filed a flurry of lawsuits seeking to remove former President Donald Trump from the GOP primary ballot, told Newsweek that he is filing suit against Thomas in a Virginia court under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (VFATA).

The complaint, which was shared with Newsweek, alleges that in violation of VFATA, "Clarence Thomas knowingly presented or caused to be presented a false and fraudulent claim (i.e., his 2005 Virginia State Income Tax Return) to the Virginia Department of Taxation on or about April 15, 2016, that failed to report income from discharge of indebtedness."

Thomas has faced immense scrutiny and calls for his resignation after it was reported that he failed to disclose several transactions, including a $267,230 loan that he received from wealthy friend Anthony Welters.

Last year, an investigation from the Senate Finance Committee revealed that Thomas never repaid a "substantial portion" of that loan, raising concerns about whether the justice properly reported it in his tax filings.

Castro is suing Thomas under VFATA, which allows private citizens anywhere in the country to bring a claim against a Virginia resident for making a knowingly false or fraudulent claim to the commonwealth for money or property, essentially empowering regular Americans to take on the role of a de factor agent of the Virginia attorney general.

Asked about whether he thinks his lawsuits against Thomas and Trump will fuel speculations about whether or not he was a conservative, Castro insisted he was still a Republican.

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Isn't this Castro the same guy who keeps suing to block Trump from getting on the ballot? He's nothing but a clown doing this for attention. These aren't serious lawsuits, and if anything they end up hurting the cause more than anything, by making a mockery of the situation and making it harder for legitimate complaints to get the attention they deserve.