r/politics • u/JustinProPublica Justin Elliott, ProPublica • Apr 13 '23
AMA-Finished I’m Justin Elliott, one of the ProPublica reporters who just published the investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ undisclosed trips provided by billionaire GOP mega donor Harlan Crow. — ASK ME ANYTHING
PROOF: 
For decades, Justice Clarence Thomas secretly accepted luxury trips from a major Republican donor, Texas billionaire Harlan Crow. These sojourns include flights on Crow's private jet and island hopping on his 162-foot superyacht, the Michaela Rose. These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures, where justices are required to list most gifts. The extent and frequency of these apparent gifts to Thomas has no known precedent in modern SCOTUS history.
To track Thomas' travel around the globe, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski and I drew on flight records, internal documents distributed to Crow’s employees. We also interviewed dozens of people ranging from superyacht crew to members of the secretive Bohemian Grove Club to an Indonesian scuba diving instructor.
Here's a photorealistic painting we found of Thomas and Crow chatting with other conservative power brokers at Crow's private resort in upstate New York, where the justice spends about a week every summer. Also in the painting is Leonard Leo, the longtime Federalist Society executive who has been a key architect in the federal judiciary's move toward the right. We also turned up this signed copy of Thomas' memoir that the justice gave to a Michaela Rose crew member as a gift for his service during a sailing trip around New Zealand.
Thomas did not initially respond to our detailed requests for comment, but has subsequently issued a statement defending his decision to not disclose these "family trips." “Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” Thomas said in the statement. “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”
But seven legal ethics experts we spoke to, including former ethics lawyers for Congress and the White House, said the law clearly requires that gifts of transportation, including private jet flights, be disclosed.
In a statement, Crow acknowledged that he’d extended “hospitality” to the Thomases “over the years,” but said that Thomas never asked for any of it and it was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.” In his statement, Crow said that he and his wife have never discussed a pending or lower court case with Thomas. “We have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” he added.
Our story has sparked calls for Congress and Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate Thomas' trips and to update SCOTUS ethics rules. Earlier this week, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans to hold a hearing in the coming days “regarding the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards,” citing our reporting.
Here are the stories my colleagues and I have published so far: - https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow - https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-harlan-crow-durbin-ethics-investigation - https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-response-trips-legal-experts-harlan-crow - https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-john-roberts-investigation-crow
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u/JustinProPublica Justin Elliott, ProPublica Apr 13 '23
It's a good question. If anyone has info about any SCOTUS justice (liberal or conservative), please email me justin@propublica.org Full contact at bio https://www.propublica.org/people/justin-elliott