Courts

Appearance Of Bribery: Political Megadonor Wants Us To Believe He Bought And Improved Justice's Mom's House Off The Record Because Of History Or Something

With the way Harlan Crow is funding efforts to immortalize Clarence Thomas, Justi Tom Tom is going to end up making cameos in Marvel films.

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Clarence Thomas interview Daily Caller

Justice Clarence Thomas (Screencap via Daily Caller News Foundation)

In today’s episode of “quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” Clarence Thomas is in the hotseat. Again. As you recall, ProPublica recently released an article detailing the two decades of Justice Thomas *not* being bribed with gifts and violating federal law by not reporting much of it.

Confronted with a massive paper trail of law breaking that would undermine any good faith agent interested in the rule of law being upheld (read: not The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board), you would expect Justice Thomas — legal mastermind that he is — to have some explanation for the clearly shady behavior that casts a long shadow on the neutrality of his decision making on the Court. Maybe some nuanced articulation of how some scienter requirement doesn’t apply?

No. His defense was that his coworkers said it was cool, the gifts were just a good friend being totally chill, and that he’d be better about following the rules from now on. I wonder if his defense to not reporting gifts also applies to his real estate sales.

A ProPublica investigation published Thursday reported that, in addition to the lavish vacations Crow has funded for Thomas and his wife, the justice sold three personal properties to the Republican billionaire without ever disclosing it—including the home belonging to Thomas’ mother Leola Williams.

In case anyone was wondering, no relation.

According to ProPublica, Crow purchased Williams’ home in 2014, along with two nearby vacant lots in Savannah, Georgia. All three properties were co-owned by Thomas, Williams, and the family of Thomas’ late brother. Crow paid $133,363 for the properties. That’s substantially more than Thomas’ valuation. On a 2009 financial disclosure form, Thomas said his one-third stake in the three properties amounted to $15,000 or less. Once Crow assumed ownership, the billionaire paid for $36,000 worth of improvements to Williams’ home, including a carport, a roof repair, a new fence, and gates.

Thomas’ failure to declare the sale of his Savannah properties is a violation of federal disclosure law, several experts told ProPublica. Justices and other public officials must disclose real estate sales over $1,000.

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I know that Thomas’s explanation for the decades of unreported gift giving was that he and Harlan were good friends, but where in the hell does one get friends like that?! It is unlikely that he was pressed for money — barring kickbacks from touring lectures or whatever he was doing when he wasn’t plotting how to whittle down the First Amendment, his base salary appears to have been at least ~200k back in 2014. Thomas, if he really wanted to, could have afforded to pay for upkeep on his mom’s house and the surrounding areas on his own. Good friend Mr. Moneybags or not, why would a person buy a property at 3x market value and add near its worth in improvements from a person who presumably isn’t in any real financial need?

In response to ProPublica’s new reporting, Crow said he bought Williams’ home to “preserve it for posterity,” with a goal of eventually turning it into a museum dedicated to Thomas. The justice did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about the property sale to Crow.

Posterity huh. Well, at least Crow is consistent. Crow has funded statues, paintings and God knows what else in the Justice’s honor. But time capsules and making memorabilia are not affirmative defenses to federal disclosure law.

But could the house really support a museum? If only there were someone writing legal commentary willing to scour floorplans available online to concoct Feng Shui defenses of conservative improprieties…. Let me know if you think of anyone.

For an even more in depth look at the deed, the property and the surrounding context, you can read ProPublica’s reporting here.

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Clarence Thomas’ Mom Definitely Still Lives in the House the Billionaire Bought [Slate]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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