At Inman Connect Las Vegas, July 30-Aug. 1, 2024, the noise and misinformation will be banished, all your big questions will be answered, and new business opportunities will be revealed. Join us.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has finally disclosed two additional 2019 trips paid for by real estate billionaire and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, according to a financial disclosure report amended by Thomas in May.
The trips, first reported on by ProPublica, were to the Indonesian island of Bali and the secretive, all-male club known as Bohemian Grove in Northern California. Justice Thomas had not previously acknowledged the trips on any of his financial disclosures, wherein Crow and his wife paid for food and lodging at luxury resorts, according to the report.
Thomas faced a wave of criticism in 2023 when it was uncovered that he failed to report an initial round of luxury vacations bankrolled by Crow. Thomas said the trips to California and Bali were “inadvertently omitted at the time of filing,” and that he “sought and received guidance from his accountant and ethics counsel,” when preparing his 2023 report.
In November, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to authorize a subpoena for the Texas developer.
Crow’s financial involvement with Thomas has extended far beyond vacations, reporting has found, with Crow making private school payments for Thomas’ grandnephew according to ProPublica. The publication also found that a company tied to Crow purchased plots of land in Savannah, Georgia, owned by Thomas and his family members, which Thomas did not initially report.
Thomas’ extensive financial relationship with Crow inspired the court to adopt a formal code of ethics in November, though it includes no enforcement abilities.
The court’s new ethics rules have done little to quiet the controversy surrounding it, though, with Justice Samuel Alito bringing scrutiny to the court recently after it was revealed that he displayed flags associated with the January 6 capitol riot at two of his properties, one of which was an upside-down American flag. Alito has placed the blame for the flags on his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, and claimed neither of them knew the flags’ meaning.
