It looks like Clarence Thomas has broken the law… Yet again.
The highly controversial Conservative Supreme Court Justice, on the highly Conservative stacked SCOTUS, is frankly no stranger to scandal and controversy. No one will soon forget his wife’s undeniable role in the deadly January 6th Capitol attack.
But the scandal just got deeper still for Thomas, following an absolute bombshell new report from ProPublica that has exposed literal decades of corruption between Clarence and one key billionaire Republican donor.
According to ProPublica, Clarence Thomas has been illegally receiving staggeringly expensive, luxury gifts and even private jet travel from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow, for literal decades now, while failing to report any of it, per the regulations and standards he stands subject to as a Supreme Court Justice — a move that serves as a direct violation of the US law that requires members of the SCOTUS to report pretty much any gifts they receive, so as to avoid bribes and conflicts of interest.
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The publication opens its report with three show-stopping allegations against Justice Clarence Thomas:
He goes on cruises in far-flung locales on Crow’s yacht, flies on his private jet, and keeps company with Crow’s powerful friends at the billionaire’s private resort.”
Ethics law experts have noted that Thomas’ blatant and repeated failure to disclose these gifts and luxury travels appear to “violate a law requiring justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts.”
For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.
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.”
ProPublica describes in depth the series of perks Thomas is said to have received from Crow over the course of literal decades, before turning to quote legal experts who breakdown the true illegality of what Clarence has been busted doing now:
‘It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,’ said Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton. When she was on the bench, Gertner said, she was so cautious about appearances that she wouldn’t mention her title when making dinner reservations: ‘It was a question of not wanting to use the office for anything other than what it was intended.’
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties, said Thomas ‘seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations.’
‘When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,’ said Canter, now at the watchdog group CREW. ‘Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.'”
The investigative report confirms they “uncovered the details of Thomas’ travel by drawing from flight records, internal documents distributed to Crow’s employees and interviews with dozens of people ranging from his superyacht’s staff to members of the secretive Bohemian Club to an Indonesian scuba diving instructor.”
Crown himself was quick and rather desperate to get the ball rolling on some damage control as the news of the corruption broke, providing ProPublica with a statement, claiming that he nor his wife has ever discussed a pending or lower court case with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, appearing to try to clear the way of any suspicion of bribes or misconduct.
“We have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” Crow said in the statement.
ProPublica’s report is extensive, interactive, and all-encompassing, including featured photos, multimedia, and minute details that serve to be particularly damning for Clarence Thomas.
Find that full investigative report here.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
