Judge Clarence Thomas reportedly took gifts from Texas real estate developer
A bombshell report has revealed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly took luxury gifts from a big Texas businessman and real estate developer for over two decades. Thomas reportedly used the private jet and lavish yacht of Dallas-based real estate developer Harlan R. Crow to take out-of-country trips with his wife, nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica reports.
The story says that Thomas, one of the Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe v. Wade, accepted gifts from the Dallas businessman and didn’t disclose them. Thomas has gone with Crow to Bohemian Grove, an “all-male retreat” in California, spent time at Crow’s East Texas ranch, and has spent summers at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.
Thomas’ 2019 trip to Indonesia with his wife would have cost him around $500,000, ProPublica reports, but use of Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet and yacht was free. ProPublica uncovered these undisclosed gifts through flight records, internal documents from Crow’s employees, and interviews with people, including Crow’s yacht staff.
Crow is the former CEO and current chairman of the board of Crow Holdings, a financial holdings company started by the Crow family. The businessman got his start in Houston as an industrial leasing agent in 1974, according to the Crow Holdings website. Crow is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin an is on the board of other organizations, including a U.S. policy think tank at Stanford known as the Hoover Institute.
The Hoover Institute is connected to other conservative figures like media billionaire and Fox News owner K. Rupert Murdoch, who is on the Hoover Institute’s board of overseers.
Thomas did not respond to requests for comment from ProPublica, but Crow confirmed his “hospitality” to Thomas and his wife in a statement, saying it was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”
