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.

  • @dhork@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    6110 months ago

    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.

    • @skulblaka@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      2310 months ago

      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.

      • @dhork@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        710 months ago

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

        • cabbage
          link
          fedilink
          110 months ago

          I guess it could be as easy as tipping them off?