In news that shocks absolutely no one, Clarence Thomas has finally disclosed that he enjoyed luxury vacations funded by conservative billionaire Harlan Crow.
Thomas officially updated a financial disclosure to the court that reveals trips to Indonesia and a California men’s club paid for by Crow. This information contradicts the previous version of the submitted disclosure.
The trips occurred in 2019. In April 2023, ProPublica released a damning investigation that showed Crow paid for Thomas’ trips. Thomas stated that he enjoyed “this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends” publicly, but they were not included in court financial records.
The new filing briefly describes why Thomas is fessing up to this information now. “During the preparation and filing of this report, filer sought and received guidance from his accountant and ethics counsel,” the report states.
According to watchdog group Fix the Court, Thomas received 103 gifts worth $2.4m. For comparison, that total is 10 times what his fellow justices received combined over the same period of time.
Thomas has numerous calls to recuse himself on cases involving the January 6 attack on the Capitol as a violent attempt to alter the 2020 election result over his wife Ginni’s connections, but he has refused.
In 2020, Ginni did her best to sway then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to support Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud. She later told the House Jan. 6 committee she regrets sending those messages.
“You know, it was an emotional time,” Thomas explained to the committee back in 2022. “I’m sorry these texts exist.” Last year, all nine supreme court justices agreed to a code of conduct. However, critics maintain that there hasn’t been an adequate way to enforce it.
Thomas is no stranger to controversy, and this is only his latest transgression.