Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly failed to follow a decades-old law requiring government officials to report certain real estate transactions by not disclosing that GOP donor Harlan Crow purchased three properties from him in Savannah, Georgia.
According to ProPublica, tax and property records show Mr Crow purchased three parcels of land, including the plot where Mr Thomas’ mother still lives, for a combined $133,363 in 2014.
But Mr Thomas “never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties,” the report said.
According to ethics law experts, Mr Thomas’ failure to report the real estate sales “appears to be a violation of the law”.
“The transaction marks the first known instance of money flowing from the Republican megadonor to the Supreme Court justice,” ProPublica reported.
The report of Mr Thomas’ apparent failure to disclose the real estate transactions with Mr Crow comes just days after a separate report revealing that the Supreme Court justice accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of airfare, transportation by yacht, and hospitality at properties owned by the billionaire Republican donor.
In a statement to CNN, Mr Crow said he bought the parcels of land from Mr Thomas so he could “one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nation’s second black Supreme Court Justice”.
He also said the purchases were carried out “at market rate” which was based on “many factors including the size, quality, and livability of the dwellings”.
But ProPublica also reported that Mr Crow sold two of the three properties but retains title to the property where Mr Thomas’ mother lives. One of the billionaire’s companies pays the $1,500 yearly real estate taxes on the home — a tax that was previously paid by Mr Thomas and his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas.
