When Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was looking to buy an RV he didn't have sufficient means to buy what he wanted, a Prevost Le Mirage XL Marathon motor coach, which brand new even back then was about $1,000,000. (Basically, the Rolls Royce of motor homes.) But he found a used one which was "only" $267,230 and tried to figure out a way to satisfy his new passion, RVing at America's most exclusive RV parks.
And while the ethically-challenged and morally bankrupt Justice Thomas would claim that he scrimped and saved for years in order to be able to afford it, the truth looks quite a bit more sordid. Someone else bought it for him, and then probably wrote it off as a business expense. But that's just conjecture. We don't really know for sure as everything about Thomas' finances and gifts from wealthy patrons is murky at best.
Source: New York Times
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 healthcare industry.
He provided Justice Thomas with financing that experts said a bank would have been unlikely to extend — not only because Justice Thomas was already carrying a lot of debt, but because the Marathon brand’s high level of customization makes its used motor coaches difficult to value.
And what did Mr. Welters say about their arrangement?
In an email to The Times, Mr. Welters wrote: “Here is what I can share. Twenty-five years ago, I loaned a friend money, as I have other friends and family. We’ve all been on one side or the other of that equation. He used it to buy a recreational vehicle, which is a passion of his.” Roughly nine years later, “the loan was satisfied,” Mr. Welters added. He subsequently sent The Times a photograph of the original title bearing his signature and a handwritten “lien release” date of Nov. 22, 2008.
The Times then went into a deep dive and could find no record of the lien ever being released, meaning Mr. Welters still has a claim to owning the RV himself as the primary purchaser. All a bit of mystery why that never happened, but then most things dealing with Clarence Thomas and finances usually are. Note that Welters said, "the loan was satisfied." Not necessarily paid back in full, just "satisfied." There's a reason he phrased it that way.
And if you're wondering what these things can look like inside, here's a 1999 model. Not Clarence's but it will give you a rough idea.
This seems to be the only photo with Thomas and the RV.
