Highly controversial Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been under the microscope and a hell of a lot of scrutiny in recent months, as his highly inappropriate relationship with a high-profile, certified Republican billionaire has repeatedly been exposed — and now it seems that Thomas is just flat out admitting to it all.
Thomas’ relationship with Texas billionaire Harlan Crow — a prominent American businessman and real estate developer who is known to be in the pockets of several high-profile conservatives — has been the epicenter of scrutiny from Americans and ethics and oversight committees as it seems that the pair have a highly transactional “friendship” in the form of Harlan footing the bill for many high-ticket things for the SCOTUS justice, ranging from trips to tuition fees for Thomas’ relative.
This, of course, leaves people to wonder just what it was that Harlan was getting in return.
Now, for the first time, additional financial gifts and benefits between Harlan and Thomas have gone public in required annual financial disclosures for 2023 that were recently obtained by the Washington Post — essentially amounting to the SCOTUS justice finally copping to his inappropriate financial relationship with the TX billionaire.
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A copy of the records wasn’t immediately available on the online Federal Judicial Financial Disclosure Reports database, however, WaPo confirmed that Thomas’s 2023 disclosure form included confirmation that Harlan not only paid for a 2019 trip for two to Bali but also included food and lodging for trips to Indonesia and Bohemian Grove club in California.
Both of these instances of inappropriate financial benefits between the pair were reported on in ProPublica’s wide-reaching investigation last year.
Clarence’s sudden admissions tucked away inside his 2023 financial disclosures come after investigations busted him for repeatedly failing to disclose past financial benefits from Harlan Crow — including ritzy, lavish vacations and multiple private jet rides.
Thomas’ 2022 financial disclosures revealed that Harlan footed the bill for private flights for the SCOTUS justice on more than one occasion, as well as transportation, meals, and lodging while Thomas was visiting Crow as a guest from July 7-13, 2022, in Keese Mill, New York.
Clarence has defended these expenditures on the grounds that the 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade presented a serious risk to his security and safety.
WaPo’s damning new report comes hot on the heels of a separate report that found a staggering approximate $4.7 million in inappropriate gifts to United States Supreme Court justices over the course of 2 decades — more than $4 million of which reportedly went directly into the pocket of Clarence Thomas, according to the new data.
The nonprofit accountability group Fix the Court publicly exposed Thomas’ “staggering tally,” leading to intense outcry and outrage from the American public.
In a public statement on the matter, Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth said, “Supreme Court justices should not be accepting gifts, let alone the hundreds of freebies worth millions of dollars they’ve received over the years. The ethics crisis at the Court won’t begin to abate until justices adopt stricter gift acceptance rules.”
It is time for this to stop.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
