The Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas got lavish gifts and private jet excursions paid for by Harlan Crow, a wealthy Texas real estate investor and prominent Republican fundraiser, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
Some of the gifts were a Bible that once belonged to abolitionist Frederick Douglass, which Thomas thought was worth $19,000, and a bust of Abraham Lincoln, which Thomas thought was worth $15,000.
Crow explained at the time –
“I just knew he was a fan of Frederick Douglass, and I saw that item come available at an auction and I bought it for him.”
He also flew Thomas on his own plane to Northern California so that Thomas could be his guest at the Bohemian Grove, a place where government and business leaders went to get away from it all.
Thomas wouldn’t say anything about the article, but it seems to have had an effect: Thomas seems to have kept taking free trips from his rich friend. But he stopped telling people about them.
ProPublica reported that Crow paid for Thomas and his wife Ginni to take expensive trips around the world in recent years. One of these trips was “nine days of island-hopping” off the coast of Indonesia in 2019 on a 162-foot “superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.”
That’s very different from how Thomas usually talks about his summer trips when he talks about driving a blue motor home and staying in campgrounds.
But ProPublica said that he often stays at Crow’s ranch in East Texas and his resort in the Adirondacks in upstate New York on his summer trips and that Crow pays for these stays.
ProPublica wrote –
“The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court. These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures.
It is still not clear if Thomas broke any rules or laws by accepting these gifts and not telling anyone about them.
Since 1978, the Ethics in Government Act has required judges and justices to report travel costs and other expenses that groups, universities, and other organizations pay for. It does, however, make an exception for “personal hospitality of any person,” as long as the travel is not for official business.
Crow said in a statement to ProPublica –
“Justice Thomas and Ginni never asked for any of this hospitality.”
He added that we “never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one.” People who care about ethics have been upset that the Supreme Court and Congress haven’t made stricter rules for the country’s top judges.
They say that Thomas and his wife show why we need to pay more attention. Ginni Thomas has been a conservative activist in Washington for a long time. In 2020, she tried to overturn President Trump’s loss in the election by talking to Trump’s staff and state election officials.
Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, an advocate for court reform said –
“We have been here before. Clarence Thomas has been taking these trips for decades and not disclosing them.”
Thomas checked a box on his most recent annual disclosure forms to say that he did not have any gifts to report. Responding to the ProPublica story, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin tweeted –
“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standard. Justice Thomas’ lavish undisclosed trips with a GOP mega-donor undermine the trust that our country places in the Supreme Court. Time for an enforceable code of conduct for justices.”
Last month, the group that makes policy for the federal court announced that travel on private jets and stays at private resorts that are open to the public will have to be reported under slightly stricter rules. Even though these rules could lead to more disclosures next year, they would not limit or stop this kind of travel.
Roth said ProPublica’s report makes clear that “the personal hospitality rules the judiciary adopted last month do not go far enough: the Supreme Court and lower courts need the same, if not stricter, gift and travel rules than what members of Congress have. That means a judicial ethics office to preapprove sponsored trips, no matter who — even a ‘friend’ — is footing the bill.”
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