‘HOSPITALITY’

Clarence Thomas Accused of Hiding Years of ‘Gifts’ From GOP Donor

ProPublica reports that years of lavish trips with real estate magnate Harlan Crow “appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures.”

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accused of concealing decades worth of lavish trips paid for by a major GOP donor in a new ProPublica report. Citing flight records, internal documents, and dozens of interviews, ProPublica says the conservative judge’s many trips with real estate magnate Harlan Crow “appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures.” One 2019 trip alone would have cost more than $500,000, according to the report, and Thomas accepted vacations with Crow almost every year for more than 20 years, often rubbing elbows with corporate executives and Republican donors at Crow’s resort in upstate New York. Crow, in a statement, said he’d shown “hospitality” to Thomas over the years but asserted that neither he nor any of Thomas’ fellow guests ever tried to lobby or influence him in any way. Thomas has not yet commented on the report. Ethics lawyers, nonetheless, suggested Thomas’ lifestyle was “subsidized by the rich and famous.” “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink,” said Virginia Canter of the watchdog group CREW. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” retired federal judge Nancy Gertner told ProPublica. All federal judges and justices are required by law to disclose most gifts.