Clarence Thomas has accepted undisclosed luxury trips from GOP megadonor for decades, report says

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted secret luxury trips from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow for more than two decades in apparent violation of a financial disclosure law, a ProPublica report revealed Thursday.

Thomas has vacationed on Crow’s 162-foot superyacht, flown on the real estate developer’s private jet and spent time at the GOP donor’s private resort and other exclusive retreats, ProPublica reported, citing documents and dozens of interviews.

Thomas, the 74-year-old conservative associate justice who has served on the nation’s highest court since 1991, has not reported the trips on his financial disclosures as required by law, the nonprofit newsroom reported.

The investigation offers more fuel for Thomas’ critics, who say his refusal to recuse himself from cases touching on issues related to his wife’s political work in conservative circles — including her involvement in schemes to overturn the 2020 election — poses a conflict of interest.

Ethics experts and ex-judges interviewed by ProPublica were incredulous. Thomas “seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations,” Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at the watchdog group CREW, told the outlet.

“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” Canter said.

Spokespeople for the Supreme Court and Crow did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the investigation.

In a statement to ProPublica, Crow said, “The hospitality we have extended to the Thomas’s over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”

Thomas and his wife, Ginni Thomas, “never asked” for any of the gifts, nor for any of the contributions the Crows have made to projects celebrating the justice’s “life and legacy,” the megadonor said. Crow added that he and his wife “have never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.”

Crow, a Texas real estate magnate, became friends with Thomas after he joined the Supreme Court. He has given more than $10 million in publicly disclosed political donations, and unknown amounts to groups that aren’t required to reveal their donors, ProPublica reported.

Thomas typically spends about a week each summer at Topridge, Crow’s private lakeside resort in the Adirondacks, and flight records show he has used Crow’s plane numerous times, according to the news outlet.

In 2019, shortly after the court shared its final opinion of the term, Clarence and Ginni Thomas took off on Crow’s private jet for a nine-day vacation in Indonesia aboard the donor’s yacht — a trip that cost more than $500,000, according to ProPublica.

Supreme Court justices are constrained by fewer ethical restrictions than lower rungs of the judiciary. Some groups have called to implement a code of ethics for the high court.

But justices still submit financial disclosures, and experts say they are required to disclose all gifts valued at more than $415. While there are exceptions to that requirement, transportation is not one of them.

“If Justice Thomas received free travel on private planes and yachts, failure to report the gifts is a violation of the disclosure law,” Kedric Payne, senior ethics director for the Campaign Legal Center, told the outlet.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., later Thursday morning called for an “enforceable code of conduct” for Supreme Court justices as he slammed Thomas over the reported secret trips.

“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” Durbin said in response to the report. “This behavior is simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a Justice on the Supreme Court.”

For some reason I am not surprised. Perhaps time for some ethical laws regarding those on the highest court?

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/06/clarence-thomas-took-gop-megadonor-harlan-crow-secret-luxury-trips-report.html

I think they are trying to make some rules but I just heard a snippet of a conversation the other day. Something about making them disclose all gifts etc. They used to be exempt from personal gifts but then they just made everything personal.

It should be understood that all republicans are corrupt.

For the 129578567th time...we need to get money out of politics.

How is this legal!?

Do they just assume it's a gift and there are no strings attached? I suppose I can appreciate the idealism but damn...

I feel like most politicians and higher-placed government officials are corrupt, but yes...Republicans/conservatives are especially corrupt.

There's no code of ethics for the Supreme Court. Is anyone really surprised to find out that they act completely unethically?

@mrbojangles25: This is going to sound flippant, but I'm being serious.

As defined by recent law, they're just engaging in speech. This is what we get when we define money as speech.

I'm not American either. Where are you from?

Anyway, stop trying to derail the topic with your typical Republican/Russian propaganda.

You seem to agree that accepting politically-motivated bribes is a bad thing, so I assume you want to see Clarence Thomas immediately removed from his position?

You have this backwards.

Considering you have the facts wrong, you might want to sit this one out.

@Skarwolf: And you still have it wrong. They wanted Ukraine to investigate and deal corruption and that's why the US wanted to hold up the money. The entire western world wanted this done.

Man the far right is uniformed.

@Skarwolf: It sounds like you've heard such rebuttals quite often.

The icebergs occasionally surface to give us a small glimpse of the true reality.

Sigh. If we only knew the full extent of things like this occurring daily in the judicial and political system, on both sides of the aisle, we’d laugh ourselves silly at the naive idealism we’ve been shoveled since our earliest days.

Apparently the dude voted to overturn a bribery case during it all.

Textbook impeachment, but republicans love protecting naked corruption and political crime. They'll cover for everything from conmen to pedos.

Hunter Biden is not a SCOTUS judge, he doesn't even hold public office. The rest of your post was fact checked as false.

Trump Revives False Narrative on Biden and Ukraine - FactCheck.org

One of the worst whataboutisms and false equivalences I have seen in this forum. With a nice amount of lies.

1. Why are you guys going off-topic?

2. What he said was not true. You made multiple Bursima threads/posts, where I posted multiple fact check lists which you ignored. You were wrong and conceded each and every time, why say "true" again? This is like a 12 year old saying 4+4 =10, me correcting you a few times, and then you saying 4+4=10 a week later.

This is trolling. Why are you behaving like a child?

This is really bad. MAGAs will eat this up and spread some russian propaganda to make it tastier.

The court desperately needs to be expanded and all these corrupt right-wing judges need to be marginalized or removed. Why anyone votes for a party that prioritizes the whims of the wealthy over the needs of everyone else is beyond me.

Unfortunately, no justice will come from this.

Laws mean nothing if the people enforcing said laws, are corrupt.

No system of checks and balances. Unless the DOJ goes after him for tax fraud.

If anyone is curious about the background, upbringing, and life of Clarence Thomas, I highly recommend listening to the following Behind the Bastards podcasts. Really insightful stuff. Host is a bit of a smartass but I find him entertaining enough.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

The judicial branch doesn't enforce laws, they interpret them.

I enforce the law.

@Stevo_the_gamer said:

@Maroxad said:

Unfortunately, no justice will come from this.

Laws mean nothing if the people enforcing said laws, are corrupt.

The judicial branch doesn't enforce laws, they interpret them.

I enforce the law.

Goddam that's so hot.

Clarence Thomas Didn’t Disclose Harlan Crow Real Estate Deal — ProPublica

oof.

@mrbojangles25: Btb is an excellent podcast.

One pump one cream my friend...bagels....child hunting island.....HIIITLEEERRRR!

Legalized bribery still has the requirement to document and report all the received bribes. That's the crime here, that uncle tom was hiding all these multi million gifts over the years.

@zaryia: If any of this matters, that will be it. It's a blatant crime.

I know because I have to prove to the IRS that my property is rented out for not a dollar below market rate every year. Requirements are well documented and millions of people have to abide by them. He can't claim he was merely tagging along on a buddy's trip with this, it's considered a gift by the IRS with tax obligations that he dodged - and, of course, bribery implications he'll need to address.

jfc

my wife works for an accounting firm in a technology consulting role, nothing to do with accounting, auditing or any of the firm's financial functions. the ridiculous amount of shit we have to disclose about all our financial affairs to prove independence from any conflicts is insane. this motherfucker is on the supreme fucking court, is doused in bribes and doesn't have to say a word...

Conservative guy on the supreme court. Naturally everything he does he does with the best intentions. If he happens to forget to report some bribery, thats just something that happens. No need to be all upset about it. Happens to the best of us.

/s

Oh really, so there's actually a real crime (potentially I suppose) involved in this. Of course, he could probably just take it to the Supreme Court, lol, he's got friends there.

Wish I had a friend like Justice Thomas’ friend!

Lol. shoulda been a supreme court justice