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It isn’t clear exactly what the nature of the relationship is between Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Republican billionaire donor and alleged Nazi memorabilia collecter Harland Crow, but it is clear that real-life Uncle Ruckus of the highest court in the land has been beyond neglectful in his legal obligation to disclose the millions of dollars in gifts and luxury trips he and his wife, Ginni, have accepted from Crow.
Honestly, it’s looking more and more like their relationship is a “You scratch my back and I’ll have a professional masseuse scratch yours while I fly you around the world on my private jet for the umpteenth time” kind of deal. However, the core issue that has put Thomas under the radar of ethics law experts last year isn’t that he received all of these gifts and trips from Crow—although that should concern anyone who is concerned with powerful and high-profile political leaders being bought off by wealthy special interests people—the issue is his failure to disclose the gifts. In fact, according to Raw Story, documents released by the Senate Judiciary Committee show that between 2017 and 2021, Thomas traveled by air on Crow’s dime at least three more times than he previously reported.
From Raw Story:
The revelations that Crow offered up to the committee show Thomas flying from St. Louis, Missouri, to Kalispell, Montana, and a final landing spot in Dallas two days later.
A second trip on Crow’s private plane, according to the reports, occurred in March 2019, where Thomas flew out of Washington, D.C.D.C., to Savannah, Georgia, and then back.
It was also reported that in June 2021, Thomas hopped on a roundtrip flight between Washington D.C. and San Jose, California.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Supreme Court’s ethical crisis is producing new information, like what we’ve revealed today, and makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a statement.
Mind you, just this week, Fox News recently tried to deflect from Thomas’ alleged ethics violations by reporting that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson received Beyoncé concert tickets valued at $3,700, among other gifts, despite the fact that those gifts were disclosed. As we previously reported, Fox only knew about the gifts to Jackson, which didn’t come from anyone with political influence, because the “disclosures were part of an annual filing deadline for the justices, which all met except for Samuel Alito who asked for an extension.” So, when Durbin mentions that Supreme Court “members continue to choose not to meet” their obligations to disclose the gifts they receive, it really seems like he’s only talking about certain conservative justices who would certainly be crying foul if it were their Democratic counterparts who were neglecting their ethical duties.
It’s also worth mentioning that it was recently reported that Crow paid the private school tuition of Mark Martin, the grandson of Thomas’s sister Emma Mae Martin who Thomas and his wife raised “like a son” until they eventually cut him out of their lives while he was still a teenager, according to Martin, who is currently awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges for which he could face up to 25-plus years in prison. Those tuition payments Crow made also reportedly went undisclosed.
So, yeah, Clarence and Crow have some ‘splaining to do, because something just ain’t right with those two, and one can only wonder what else Thomas is hiding.
