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It took an unprecedented level of scrutiny and a public outcry from Democrats for Justice Clarence Thomas to come clean about his finances.
In a disclosure form Thomas filed on Thursday — which was originally due in May — the Justice finally reported the vacations and private flights he enjoyed courtesy of his friend Harlan Crow, the Republican billionaire who helped fund Thomas’s lifestyle while having business before the court. In the document, Thomas formally acknowledged that in 2022, Crow had paid for his vacation at the GOP donor’s luxurious estate in the Adirondacks and for a trip to speak at a conservative conference in Dallas at a venue Crow owned — details first uncovered in April by ProPublica. In the filing, Thomas also belatedly disclosed that Crow had bought his mother’s house in 2014 in an apparent effort to increase its property value. Thomas claimed on Thursday that he did not report the deal at the time because he says he lost money on it.
It’s not common to defend one’s actions in a financial disclosure, but Thomas attached a note to the document stating that he flew on Crow’s jet to attend the conference in May 2022 because he was concerned about security following the leak of a draft opinion indicting court was going to repeal Roe v. Wade. That defense doesn’t explain another admission on the disclosure — that Thomas flew on Crow’s airplane in February 2022 as well.
Justice Samuel Alito, who is no stranger to the kinds of vacations Thomas took, also filed a disclosure form for 2022 on Thursday, disclosing his trip to Italy, which was paid for by Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative. Both justices requested a 90-day extension from the May deadline, which the other Supreme Court members met without issue.
Neither Thomas nor Alito has ever denied that they’ve been on lavish trips paid for by conservative donors. They have also never acknowledged that there may be an ethical issue with accepting gifts from rich friends who have cases before the Supreme Court.
