The US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas appears to have violated US law by failing to disclose “flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports tickets” bestowed by wealthy friends behind at least 38 destination vacations, ethics experts told ProPublica in its latest blockbuster report on the conservative judge and his friends.
“It’s so obvious,” Richard Painter, a White House ethics chief under George W Bush, told the nonprofit website. “It all has to be reported.”
The report was just the latest in a string of exposés of links between Thomas, 75, and rich benefactors, many donors to conservative causes, prominently including the real-estate magnate Harlan Crow.
ProPublica has revealed undeclared links to Crow including luxury holidays and travel; a real estate sale to the benefit of Thomas’s mother; and school fees paid for his grand nephew. It has also reported on links between another arch-conservative justice, Samuel Alito, and another billionaire, Paul Singer.
In response to a previous ProPublica report about Crow, Thomas denied wrongdoing, saying he never discussed politics or business before the court with his friend.
The justice did not comment on the new report about his 38 vacations at the gift of businessmen including Wayne Huizenga (a former owner of the Miami Dolphins NFL team who died in 2018), David Sokol and Paul “Tony” Novelly, trips that included luxury golf resort visits and expensive college football tickets.
Novelly and Huizenga’s son did not comment.
Sokol told ProPublica he and Thomas “have never once discussed any pending court matter. Our conversations have always revolved around helping young people, sports and family matters. As to the use of private aviation, I believe that given security concerns all of the supreme court justices should either fly privately or on governmental aircraft.”
On social media, Mark Paoletta, a lawyer, conservative activist and Thomas friend, attacked ProPublica before its report was published. Bemoaning “another smear job”, Paoletta called ProPublica a “leftwing billionaire-funded attack dog”, apparently a reference to Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency mogul who faces criminal charges. Earlier this year, ProPublica said it would return a $1.6m donation from Bankman-Fried and terminate the relationship.
Paoletta, who appears on a painting made famous by ProPublica, of Thomas with Crow, Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society and other prominent conservatives, said the site “reached out to me for this story as I was on one of these wonderful trips with my good friends”.
ProPublica described how at a luxury lodge in Wyoming, Thomas and his wife, the far-right activist Ginni Thomas, “fished, rafted on the Snake River and sat by a campfire overlooking the Teton Range with the other couples”.
ProPublica also published a picture of a card sent to friends by Ginni Thomas. It showed Mark and Tricia Paoletta singing while holding phones. The caption said they were performing “a special tribute to Clarence”.
Thomas’s love of luxury travel has been described elsewhere. The New York Times recently reported how Anthony Welters, a healthcare magnate, financed Thomas’s purchase of a luxury motor home, or RV.
In its new report, ProPublica also reviewed records showing how the Horatio Alger Association, to which Thomas belongs, a link first reported by the Times, raised money by offering donors seats at an event at the supreme court.
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer, said: “To use the supreme court to fundraise for somebody’s charity is, to me, an abuse of office. It’s pay to play, isn’t it?”
The association, named for a 19th-century writer who popularised rags-to-riches tales, denied wrongdoing and praised Thomas’s work with scholarship recipients. In a literary historical aside, ProPublica said: “In real life, Alger was a minister on Cape Cod who resigned from his parish after he was credibly accused of molesting boys.”
Published early on Thursday, the ProPublica story made a huge splash.
In response, Kyle Herrig, senior adviser to Accountable.US, a progressive nonprofit, said: “Justice Thomas clearly sees his position on our nation’s highest court as a way to upgrade his own lifestyle via his billionaire benefactor social circle.”
“It was his own decades-long improper financial relationship with Harlan Crow that sparked the supreme court corruption crisis in the first place – and that was just the tip of the iceberg. Harlan Crow, Justice Thomas, Leonard Leo and other key players in this court corruption crisis may believe they exist above the law, but they don’t. We need accountability and reform now.”
Many would agree the supreme court is in crisis but accountability is unlikely. Supreme court justices are nominally subject to the same ethics rules as all federal judges but in practice govern themselves.
Claiming his court holds itself to the “highest standards” of ethical conduct, the conservative chief justice, John Roberts, has rejected requests to testify in Congress. Meanwhile, the Senate judiciary committee chair, Dick Durbin of Illinois, has exchanged barbs with Alito. On Thursday, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, another committee Democrat, said of the new ProPublica report: “I said it would get worse; it will keep getting worse. Omertà must stop; it becomes complicity.”
The committee has introduced legislation for ethics reform. It is almost certain to fail, given Republican opposition.
Democrats and progressives have called for Thomas to resign or be removed. Neither is remotely likely. Republican control of the House ensures impeachment is a non-starter. Even if it were, Thomas is a senior conservative among six on the nine-member court, delivering wins including the removal of the right to abortion. It is inconceivable that impeachment could receive necessary bipartisan support.
Still, ProPublica found no shortage of ethics experts to profess dismay at Thomas’s friendships and failure to disclose their benefits.
Jeremy Fogel, a former judge, said: “I don’t remember ever seeing this degree of largesse given to anybody. I think it’s unprecedented.”
Don Fox, a former government ethics counsel, said: “It’s just the height of hypocrisy to wear the robes [of a justice] and live the lifestyle of a billionaire.”
