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The billionaire “friend” and Republican donor who treated Clarence Thomas to luxury trips is now embroiled in another scandal over his purported collection of Nazi memorabilia.
According to reports, the Supreme Court Justice and his wife, Ginni, have enjoyed luxury trips courtesy of Texas real estate magnate Harlan Crow for close to two decades. But a source has disclosed that Crow, who also owns an extensive collection of historical artifacts at his home, also has in that collection a disturbing amount of memorabilia from the Nazi regime.
In the article published last Friday (April 7th), the source recounted their shock at seeing the mementos while attending a function at the Republican megadonor’s home in Dallas. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room,” they said. They went on to describe three paintings in the collection, “something done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler.”
Apparently, Crow owns two landscape paintings done by the Nazi dictator in addition to other Nazi memorabilia which includes a signed copy of Mein Kampf, table linen, and a teapot owned by Hitler adorned with the regime’s insignia of an eagle with talons grasping the swastika. The rest of the collection also features artifacts from the antebellum period as well as statues of dictators such as Joseph Stalin and Josip Tito of Yugoslavia in a space noted as the “Garden of Evil” in a piece from 2014 and the death mask of Lakota nation leader Sitting Bull.
As word spread online of the billionaire’s disturbing collection, a collection of friends from the conservative and far-right world leaped to his defense on social media. These included the notorious scientific racist lecturer and The Bell Curve author Charles Murray, whom it was later revealed enjoys close ties to Crow through a think-tank partnership.
Justice Thomas contested the initial reports of his acceptance of those trips and not declaring it as required by a law instituted after the Watergate scandal. Crow issued a statement after the reports came out, claiming that he and his wife “have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.” Crow has backed numerous cases that have come up before the Supreme Court, and the discovery of these lavish trips has many legal experts alleging that Thomas broke the law in a conflict of interest.
