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It has been recently discovered that, for decades, Supreme Court Justice and Uncle Ruckus prototype Clarence Thomas has been accepting free luxury vacations from Republican billionaire donor Harlan Crow, who Thomas has a history of receiving gifts from, because—what’s 20 years of ethics violations between dear friends, amirite?
Oh, what ethics violations, you ask? Well, according to the investigative report by ProPublica, which exposed Thomas’ history of living the high life with Crow, ethics law experts said Thomas’ failure to include these trips on his financial disclosures appears to “violate a law requiring justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts.”
From ProPublica:
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.
If it wasn’t bad enough that an officer of America’s highest court has been violating ethics laws on an unprecedented level, it turns out the decades-long close friend who has been footing the bill for his extravagant trips might just be a rich conservative Nazi memorabilia collector.
In fact, Crow, apparently has what the Washingtonian describes as “a garden full of statues of the 20th century’s worst despots.”
More from the Washingtonian:
“I still can’t get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia,” says one person who attended an event at Crow’s home a few years ago and asked to remain anonymous. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room.” One memorable aspect was the paintings: “something done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler.” They also said it was “startling” and “strange” to see the dictator sculptures in the backyard.
In 2014, when Crow’s house was included in a public tour of historic homes, a reporter from the Dallas Morning News visited. Apparently, Crow was visibly uncomfortable with questions about his dictator statues and Hitler memorabilia, preferring to discuss his other historical collections: documents signed by the likes of Christopher Columbus and George Washington; paintings by Renoir and Monet; statues of two of Crow’s heroes, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.
I suppose it’s not terribly surprising that the Nazi swag-lover Harlan Crow and the human manifestation of Jim Crow are besties. I mean, birds of a feather fly together—in private jets, apparently.
See how Twitter’s reacting to the news below.
