Clarence Thomas Has Reportedly Been Accepting Gifts From Republican Megadonor Harlan Crow For Decades

Topline

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accepting trips from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow for more than 20 years without disclosing them as required, ProPublica reports—including trips on private jets and yachts that could run afoul of the law—the latest in a series of ethical scandals the conservative justice has faced amid calls for justices to follow an ethics code.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021 in … [+] Washington, DC.

Getty Images

Key Facts

Thomas has repeatedly used Crow’s private jet for travel and vacationed with him including on his superyacht and at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks, where guests stay for free, ProPublica reports, citing flight records, internal documents and interviews with Crow’s employees.

The justice has stayed at Crow’s resort “every summer for more than two decades,” according to ProPublica, and reportedly makes “regular use” of Crow’s private jet, including as recently as last year and for as short as a three-hour trip from Washington, D.C., to Connecticut in 2016.

While Supreme Court justices are not bound to the same code of ethics as lower federal court judges are, they do submit financial disclosures and are subject to laws that require disclosing gifts that are more than $415 in value, including any transportation that substitutes for commercial transport.

Experts cited by ProPublica believe Thomas may have violated federal disclosure laws by not disclosing his yacht and jet travel, and that the stays at Crow’s resort may also have required disclosure because the resort is owned by Crow’s company rather than him personally.

Thomas’ stays at Crows’ resort also raise ethics concerns given the other guests Crow—a real estate magnate and Republican megadonor—has invited to the resort and on his yacht at the same time, which ProPublica reports include GOP donors, executives at Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, leaders from right-wing think tank American Enterprise Institute, Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo and Mark Paoletta, the general counsel for the Trump Administration’s Office of Management and Budget who now serves as Thomas’ wife’s attorney.

Thomas did not respond to a list of questions from ProPublica, but Crow said in a statement he and his wife “have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” and he is “unaware” of any other guests when Thomas was traveling “ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case” and “would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that.”

Crucial Quote

“The hospitality we have extended to the Thomas’ over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends,” Crow said in a statement to ProPublica, adding the Thomases “never asked for any of this hospitality.” Crow also defended donations he’s made to projects involving Thomas, such as a museum he was involved with, saying he did so not at Thomas’ request but “because we believe Justice Thomas to be one of the greatest Americans of our time, and we believe it is important to make sure as many people as possible learn about him, remember him, and understand the ideals for which he stands.”

Chief Critic

“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” former government ethics lawyer Virginia Canter, now at ethics watchdog CREW, told ProPublica, saying Thomas “seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations.”

Contra

Thomas has previously characterized his vacationing tastes as modest in public interviews. “I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it,” Thomas said in a documentary about his life that Crow financed, as quoted by ProPublica. “I come from regular stock, and I prefer that—I prefer being around that.”

What To Watch For

While ProPublica’s reporting is likely to further increase pressure from the left for Thomas to be ousted from office, it’s unlikely that will happen. Supreme Court justices, like presidents, can only be removed from office through impeachment, which would require a majority vote from the House to impeach him and a two-thirds majority in the Senate to remove him from office. Given the House’s GOP majority and Democrats’ narrow majority in the Senate, that’s unlikely to happen.

Key Background

The ProPublica report adds to growing ethical concerns around Thomas, who has already come under fire for his wife Ginni’s right-wing political activism. Reports that Ginni Thomas helped efforts to overturn the 2020 election as her husband was considering cases on it sparked calls from Democrats for him to resign, and Ginni Thomas’ activism—which has involved organizations that have submitted briefs to the Supreme Court—continues to draw scrutiny from the left. The controversies have fueled a pressure campaign for the Supreme Court to adopt a binding code of ethics that justices must follow, which the Washington Post reported has been discussed at the court for years without any decisions being made. ProPublica’s investigation marks the most extensive reporting so far on Thomas’ relationship with Crow, but the justice has been linked to him in the past, with the New York Times raising concerns in 2011 about Crow’s gifts to Thomas raising ethical concerns. Politico reported in 2011 Crow had donated $500,000 to fund Ginni Thomas’ Tea Party nonprofit Liberty Central, which the Post notes led her to instead form a for-profit organization that wasn’t subject to the same reporting rules for donors. Politico also reported Crow had given Thomas a $19,000 bible as a gift and spent $150,000 on a library wing in Savannah, Georgia, named for the justice.

Clarence Thomas Has Reportedly Been Accepting Gifts From Republican Megadonor Harlan Crow For Decades—And Never Disclosed It