Justice Thomas Defends Luxury Vacations With GOP Megadonor, Claims He Was Advised He Didn’t Have to Disclose

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has responded to a bombshell report detailing luxury travel and other gifts he and his wife Ginni Thomas enjoyed that were provided by a Republican megadonor, saying that he had previously been advised he did not have to disclose such gifts from personal friends, but due to newly adopted guidelines would do so in the future.

The ProPublica report, published Thursday morning, describes the Thomases traveling via private jets and superyachts to vacation at luxurious resorts, all at the expense of Harlan Crow, a wealthy Dallas real estate developer with a long history of generously supporting conservative causes, including being a founding member of the Club For Growth and donating millions of dollars to GOP candidates.

The report drew swift and loud criticism of the Thomases, specifically ProPublica’s suggestion that these travel expenses might run afoul of federal law:

These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts, two ethics law experts said. He also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht, these experts said.

According to ProPublica, Crow released a statement, which “acknowledged that he’d extended ‘hospitality’ to the Thomases ‘over the years,’ but said that Thomas never asked for any of it and it was ‘no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.’”

Thomas’ statement, released Friday morning from the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office, is his first comment responding to the story. Washington Examiner courts reporter Kaelan Deese tweeted a screenshot of the statement:

“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years,” wrote Thomas, adding:

As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them. Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.

I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines. These guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance. And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future.