2023-08-17 16:06:45
In public, Clarence Thomas likes to present himself as a man of the people. The longest-serving US constitutional judge to serve in 1991, becoming the second African American in history the venerable Supreme Court was appointed, then emphasizes his origins from a poor background in Georgia. “I have no problem traveling to Europe,” Thomas said in an interview a few years ago. “But I prefer the ordinary parts of the USA. I have a feeling of normality there.”
Of course, this “normality” has nothing to do with the everyday life of the majority of the American population. Eight years after his ascension to the US Supreme Court, for which he was once Republican President George HW Bush was nominated, the lawyer and his wife Virginia discovered their shared passion for camping holidays. The RV they bought back then was a Prevost Le Mirage XL Marathon. The used, twelve-meter-long “Rolls Royce of Caravans” cost a whopping $ 267,000.
Clarence repeatedly afforded luxurious escapes from Washington
For a constitutional judge with an annual income of $167,000 and a mortgage on his home for around $500,000, that was a hefty sum. But Thomas continued to treat himself to luxurious escapes from Washington in the years that followed: sometimes he flew to a yacht in the Caribbean to go deep-sea fishing, sometimes he relaxed on a mega-ranch in the billionaire paradise of Jackson Hole, sometimes on an exquisite golf course with a helipad on the Atlantic coast .
The staunchly conservative lawyer’s exquisite lifestyle was made possible by invitations, alleged loans and gifts from ultra-rich friends. Gradually, the gigantic scope of these ethically highly questionable dependencies is becoming known. In the spring of this year, the non-profit research organization Pro Publica reported for the first time on Thomas’s connection to the Texas real estate billionaire and Nazi memorabilia collector Harlan Crow, who once gave the judge a historical Bible for $ 19,000 and for travel and other expenses came up. A month ago, the New York Times revealed that the luxury RV was funded by health insurance executive Anthony Welters.
The list of “favors” is long
Now Pro Publica has presented a list of “favors” that Thomas has accepted over the past three decades. With meticulous research, the evaluation of flight data, e-mails and tax documents as well as interviews with more than 100 eyewitnesses, the investigative journalists came across at least 38 luxury trips, 26 flights in private jets, several visits to VIP lounges at sporting events and free access to a mega-exquisite golf course that typically charges an admission fee of $150,000. Overall, according to Pro Publica, the value of the perks should be “in the millions.”
All of this was paid for by right-wing businessmen such as oil baron Paul Novelly, private equity investor David Sokol and billionaire Wayne Huizenga, who died in 2018 and made his fortune by building the largest car dealership network in the United States and the Blockbuster video rental chain. At least twice, Huizenga sent his private Boeing 737 to Washington to pick up Thomas for a trip to South Florida.
Aggressive lobbying and questionable favors are common
According to American media reports, the constitutional judge did not register any of these luxury trips. Nor did he report to the Supreme Court that real estate developer Crow paid his nephew’s school fees and bought and renovated his mother’s Georgia home, which was in need of renovation. Aggressive lobbying and questionable favors are rampant in Washington. Constitutional judges are also formally permitted to accept invitations for meals and private overnight stays. But Thomas, according to Pro Publica, is “an extreme outlier”.
The judge, whose wife Ginni also has a highly problematic role as an ultra-right lobbyist, has to fear for his job during the attempted coup of January 6, 2021 still didn’t play. Constitutional judges in the United States are appointed for life. And the Supreme Court does not have a binding code of ethics. Ethics experts and democrats are now massively pushing for clear rules. But the Republicans in Congress are opposed to it.
Thomas himself can see no scandal. “Harlan and Kathy Crow are some of my closest friends,” he said in April. “We’ve taken them on a number of family trips, as friends do.”
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