Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Supreme Court Scandal BLOWN OPEN by SECRET LETTERS that JUST SURFACED

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas discusses the bombshell ProPublica Report on the letter and memo from 2000 that just surfaced and show Justice Clarence Thomas asking for a pay raise from Republicans on Congress and the plan to keep him financially comfortable through gifts by Republican billionaires. Go Right Now for 50% off your no-risk two week trial at https://TryNom.com/LEGALAF Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take a look at this letter that just surfaced from January 11, 2000 between a far right-wing member of Congress, Cliff Sterns, and Justice Clarence Thomas. At that time, Justice Thomas was on the verge of bankruptcy. He had taken out a $267,000 RV loan. He had taken out a lot of other money from his homes, and he was on the verge of bankruptcy. So the Republicans had to figure out a way to keep him on the bench, to keep him happy so that he would not depart as he was asking for more money. Let's take a look at this letter. January 11, 2000 from Cliff Sterns, a Republican member of Congress to Justice Thomas.

Just a note to let you know how much I enjoyed visiting with you on the flight back from Jacksonville to Dallas. I intend to look into a bill to raise the salaries of members of the Supreme Court as we agreed. It is worth a lot to Americans to have the constitution properly interpreted. We must have the proper incentives here too. The quote I mentioned in which I am sure you will appreciate is provided below. Have patience a while.

Slanders are not long lived. Truth is the child of time. Air long she shall appear to vindicate the Emanuel Kant. What kind personal regards I am, sincerely cliff sterns, United States House of Representatives. And then he puts a personal note about Jimmy Thomas, who was there as well. So that letter was sent January 11, 2000. And that surface, thanks to a great report by pro publica. And here's how pro-publica describes it in their new investigative report. A delicate matter. Clarence Thomas, private complaints about money sparked fears he would resign. In early January 2000, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was at a five-star beach resort in Sea Island, Georgia. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. After almost

a decade on the court, Thomas had grown frustrated with his financial situation according to his friends. He had recently started raising his young grand nephew and Thomas's wife with soliciting advice on how to handle new expenses. The month before the Justice borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy a high-end RV. At the resort, Thomas gave a speech at an off-the-record conservative conference. He found himself seated next to a Republican member of Congress on the flight home. The two men talked and the lawmaker left the conversation worried that Justice Thomas was going to resign. Congress should give Supreme Court justice a pay raise.

Justice Clarence Thomas told this Republican member of Congress, if lawmakers didn't act one or more justices will leave soon, maybe even next year. In addition to that letter, this is memorialized in a memorandum to the Chief Justice of the United States at that time, it was Chief Justice Rehnquist in a June 13, 2000, very sensitive memorandum. Compensation increase for justices, response to justice, Thomas guidance needed. It has been reported to the administrative office's General Counsel's Office, that Justice Clarence Thomas at a reception talked to Representative Cliff Sterns, a Republican from Florida, and said that unless the compensation for Supreme Court justices

is increased, one or more justices will leave soon. Stern's office then got in touch with Chip Targan of a lobbyist firm seeking their help. This group represents the national conference of bankruptcy judges and has done so ever since its founder John Podesta, currently Clinton's chief of staff, was in the firm. His brother Tony Podesta is in charge of the firm now. And then it goes on to say how from a tactical point of view, given the public statements made largely by Democratic lobbyists, it will not take the Democrats and liberals in Congress very long to figure out that the prime beneficiaries who might otherwise leave the court presumably are just as Thomas and Scalia. The Democrats might be perfectly happy

to have them leave and would see little incentive to act on separate legislation devoted solely to Supreme Court justices if the apparent purpose is to keep justices Scalia and Thomas on the court. Moreover, the fact that representative Sterns is a conservative Republican may not help dissuade the Democrats and liberals of his view. So think about that. That's what's going on in a private memorandum of 2000. So while they are trying to figure out there's this crisis taking place, you've got these right wing justices who don't have who are not, I guess, independently

wealthy and who want more money or else they're threatening to leave. So what that starts to cascade into though is not a way to actually raise their salaries through legislation. But why don't we help you out in some other ways? And so that kind of perfectly fits the timing of when Harlan Crowe comes into the picture, when all of these other right-wing, billionaire benefactors start coming into the picture and start saying, maybe we can help you here. What you feed your dog goes a long way to helping them lead their best lives. Nome Nome delivers real good food back by science to help your dog thrive

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try n o m dot com slash legal a f for 50% off. and billionaire backers who lavished Clarence Thomas with all of these trips and paid for the private school tuition of his child and who would pay for all of his travel and do all these great things from number one, where they trying to influence work before the United States Supreme Court and cases before the Supreme Court. Number one. And number two, were these right wing billionaire backers giving all of this money so that they, that these right wing Supreme Court justices could have a very comfortable lifestyle, the lifestyle that they wanted, the lifestyle that they thought that they could deserve, and then they could continue to do the Federalist Society bidding and all of the right wing legal issue bidding, undermining some key laws and undermining our judiciary system

from within but keeping them having enough money so that they are happy. Just take a look at this loan for example. Justice Thomas's RV loan then was totally forgiven, a recent Senate inquiry. If I remember that loan I told you about, right before this trip, that $267,000 loan, woof, forgiven. In other words, was basically just given the money.

It's not exactly a loan when you don't have to pay it back. This 40-foot luxury motor coach that was given to him by a wealthy individual by the name of Anthony Welters who made his fortune in the healthcare industry. And then we're talking about over 38 destination vacations from Harlan Crow and others. A yacht voyages, trips to the Bahamas, over 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter.

A dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events where he would typically be perched in sky boxes. Luxury stays at resorts in Florida and Jamaica, a standing invitation to Uber exclusive golf clubs. And we're talking about massive, massive benefits here. And as I mentioned before, also paying the tuition of of Justice Clarence Thomas' son. But you go back to it and you see how this was all being done right then and there in 2000. And when this became an issue now, they could have raised the issue open and transparently

to the public then and said, look, the justices are requesting a raise. And we need to have significant concomitant ethics obligations at this time, but we want everything to be transparent and justices can take these lavish trips. But like with everything that the right wing does and that now the Maga Republicans do, there's always kind of this, you know, slight of hand going on and it's like, you know,

or this kind of outright fraud going on of, well, we could kind of outright fraud going on of, well, we could kind of keep the salaries going up, you know, as they are. But then there were all of these undisclosed trips and benefits that were taking place until, you know, frankly, pro-publica and other investigative journalists stepped up and did a great job. Now, just think about how different our country would be right now if all of this didn't happen.

And you think about how our democracy has been undermined from within by the efforts by the Federalist Society and by this kind of right wing billionaire oligarchical group of people who were engaged in this behavior for many, many years. And that's why when we talk about Donald Trump and we talk about the modern day maga, what we can't forget, what we can't do is just look at maga in a vacuum. There were decades and decades of efforts to try to undermine the rule of law. You had sweeping, incredible piece of bipartisan legislation in the 60s and the 70s. You've got Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act and Title IX and all of these pieces on a bipartisan basis.

You even go to the early 90s and you're talking about bipartisan legislation when it came to, you know, guns and assault weapons. And then you had this group of people trying to undermine the ability of the country to act cohesively. They wanted to separate us. Why? So the billionaires can get richer so that they can form their oligarchical class and that they can have people like Clarence Thomas do their bidding. It's horrific, but you see the origins and the roots in that request. I'm Ben Mysellis, this is the Midas Touch Network.

Hit subscribe, we're on our way to two million subscribers. Another great, great article by ProPublica. Make sure you check out propublica.org for some great reporting. Till next time, have a great day. Hey, Midas Mide. Love this report? Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram. At MidasTouch, to keep up with the most important news of the day.

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