NEW: Clarence Thomas secretly accepted lavish luxury travel for decades from a billionaire businessman/GOP donor, in apparent repeat violation of ethics law.
Fmr judge: “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this."
propublica.org/article/claren… w/@js_kaplan @Amierjeski
Justin Elliott
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ProPublica reporter. Email tips/comments/complaints: [email protected] Signal #: goo.gl/FISLVH
Also at bsky.app/profile/justin…
- A detail from our story today: Ted Cruz tweeted this photo of Clarence Thomas swearing in 5th Circuit Judge James Ho. Turns out this is in billionaire Harlan Crow's private library, and flight records show Crow's jet dispatched to DC and back to Dallas before + after this eventHonored to attend Jim Ho's swearing in to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals today, alongside Justice Clarence Thomas & Judge Jerry Smith. I am confident my good friend Jim will be an extraordinary appellate judge and a principled jurist faithful to the law.
- NEW: Billionaire Harlan Crow bought property from Clarence Thomas in undisclosed real estate deal. Crow netted two vacant lots and the house where Thomas’ elderly mother was living. It’s unclear if he paid fair market value. propublica.org/article/claren… w/ @js_kaplan @Amierjeski
- Our story: Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court
- NEW: Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition. The price tag could have exceeded $150,000. propublica.org/article/claren… w/ @js_kaplan @Amierjeski
- At least 3 rich businessmen have gotten access to Supreme Court justices by paying for their lux vacations. Justice Scalia got an Alaska vacation paid for by the same businessman who hosted Justice Alito. Here he is making martinis out of glacier ice: propublica.org/article/samuel…
- 2011: Justice Thomas didn't disclose wife’s income due to a “misunderstanding of the filing instructions” 2023: Thomas “inadvertently failed to realize” real estate deal needed to be disclosed. Today: Thomas “inadvertently omitted” free luxury trips
- Our new story: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas secretly participated in Koch network donor events – a breach of judicial norms that one federal judge said “takes my breath away.”
- NEW: Our latest story is about one of the most powerful people you’ve probably never heard of. He’s emerged as a Koch-style funder on the right, pouring $100M+ into politics, and backing a host of 2020 election deniers. And he’s mysteriously good at avoiding taxes.
- CNN: Harlan Crow is not charging Justice Thomas' mother rent cnn.com/2023/04/17/pol…
- Replying to @JustinElliottAs the @propublica crew looked through tax data of America’s ultrarich, we noticed Jeff Yass, a finance deca-billionaire and major TikTok investor. Many on Wall Street are good at avoiding taxes. But Yass is in a league of his own.
- NEW: Confidential tax records show how Donald Trump’s tax cut for “small business” showered cash on some of the country’s richest families The latest from The Secret IRS Files, by me and @RobertFaturechi: propublica.org/article/secret… (thread)
- Replying to @JustinElliottOur story reveals Harlan Crow paid boarding school tuition for Mark Martin, a relative who Justice Thomas took in and raised as a son from age 6. Here’s a bank statement we’re publishing showing a wire of Crow Holdings LLC paying $6,200 for a month’s tuition:
- Clarence Thomas’ acceptance of free vacations as a government official dates back to the 80s, per NYT: nytimes.com/2023/07/09/us/…









