Friday, April 7, 2023

Clarence Thomas corruption scandal

Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court Justice, has a long-term friendship with a billionaire who buys him off. Thomas hasn't disclosed what he's received. He has instead reported income from nonexistent companies.

Crow gives Thomas lavish gifts

"...Thomas issued a statement last Friday — explaining that the reason he hadn’t disclosed any of this was that Crow and his wife are among Clarence and Ginni Thomases’ “dearest friends” and that “as friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them."

Thomas further explained that he thought he didn’t need to report these gifts on annual disclosure forms because when he first joined the court he was told that “personal hospitality from close personal friends” need not be reported.

This is dangerous rubbish. Thomas has been a member of the Supreme Court since October 1991, which means he met his “close personal friend” Harlan Crow after Thomas was already a justice. And Thomas has been accepting Crow’s sumptuous hospitality almost from that start. Which is exactly the problem."

"How to become one of Clarence and Ginni’s dearest friends: Who is he kidding?" Robert Reich, Substack, April 13, 2023.

Here's Jack Posobiec talking to Ginni Thomas's MAGA group:

Yikes.

[image or embed]

— ✨Reader Librarian ✨ 🌞🧚🐈‍⬛🪬 (@weeklyreader.bsky.social) Jul 7, 2024 at 10:55 PM

More about Ginni Thomas (if you're on Bluesky, read the thread)

1/ Business lobbyist Virginia Lamp once said anti-immigration attitudes are “based on a type of selfish nationalism.” Today she's better known as Ginni Thomas: wife of Clarence Thomas, and an "America-first" election denier. What’s changed — for her and the U.S.? Thread 👇

— ProPublica (@propublica.org) October 25, 2024 at 7:33 PM

Also buys real estate from him

Also: "Billionaire Harlan Crow Bought Property From Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal." by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski, Pro Publica, April 13, 2023

"Thomas’ mother still lives on one of the properties and doesn't pay rent." — HuffPost

Clarence Thomas Took More Trips On GOP Donor's Jet He Didn't Disclose, Senator Says: The conservative Supreme Court justice went on an international round-trip in 2010 with his billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow, according to Sen. Ron Wyden. Sanjana Karanth, HuffPost, Aug 5, 2024

Crow has had a personal interest in Supreme Court cases

Crow has fascist statues in his yard

That last tweet points to: "Clarence Thomas’s Billionaire Benefactor Collects Hitler Artifacts," Sylvie McNamara, The Washingtonian, April 7, 2023. It begins: "When Republican megadonor Harlan Crow isn’t lavishing Justice Clarence Thomas with free trips on his private plane and yacht (in possible violation of Supreme Court ethics rules), he lives a quiet life in Dallas among his historical collections. These collections include Hitler artifacts — two of his paintings of European cityscapes, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and assorted Nazi memorabilia — plus a garden full of statues of the 20th century’s worst despots."

Crow also donated to two Democratic senators who often broke ranks to side with Republicans

How Thomas could be criminally referred

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Invited To Testify About Ethics Before Senate Huff Post, April 20, 2023

On November 13, 2023, the Supreme Court "announced a code of conduct in an attempt to bolster the public’s confidence in the court after months of news stories alleging that some of the justices have been skirting ethics regulations." — CNN

boat

"Senate Judiciary Committee Has Yet to Subpoena Harlan Crow or Leonard Leo": More than two months after authorizing subpoenas for two key figures in the Supreme Court’s ethics crisis, Senate Democrats have yet to issue them. Andy Kroll, ProPublica, Feb. 16, 2024

Previously, on the January 6 connection

He accepted at least 38 luxury vacations

Revealed in August 2023: Since he was appointed Justice in 1991, several billionaires sent him on at least 38 luxury vacations, which he did not disclose.

He had financial troubles

This story begins: "In early January 2000, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was at a five-star beach resort in Sea Island, Georgia, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt." Why? Well, "the month before, the justice had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy a high-end RV." He privately warned one Republican member of Congress that "one or more justices will leave soon" if they didn't get pay raises. "In other private conversations, Thomas repeatedly talked about removing a ban on justices giving paid speeches." Many rich people gave him gifts. "Precisely what led so many people to offer Thomas money and other gifts remains an open question."
— A “Delicate Matter”: Clarence Thomas’ Private Complaints About Money Sparked Fears He Would Resign. Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski and Brett Murphy. ProPublica. Dec 18, 2023.

On June 7, 2024, Thomas "formally disclosed a 2019 trip to Indonesia paid for by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, a vacation that was at the center of the controversy over his travel."

Clarence Thomas Failed To Report 3 Other Private Jet Trips, Senate Committee Says The Supreme Court justice took the trips, which were paid for by billionaire political donor Harlan Crow, between 2017 and 2021. Sebastian Murdock, HuffPost, Jun 13, 2024

Justice Samuel Alito's house in 2021

David Kurtz writes:

"In a breathtaking report from the NYT’s relentless Jodi Kantor [in May 2024], neighbors of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito provided evidence that the American flag was flying upside down outside his Alexandria, Virginia home in the run-up to Jan. 20, 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden – an unmistakeable emblem of protest heavily adopted by the Big Lie/Stop the Steal crowd in the weeks after the 2020 election." (David Kurtz, The Insurrectionists In Our Midst, Talking Points Memo, May 17, 2024)

Alito acknowledged to the NYT that it was "in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs." In other words, that the flag wasn't accidentally raised upside-down but that it had deliberate political meaning. He says his wife did it; "I had no involvement whatsoever."

Kurtz asks why the NYT turns the story into "an analysis of the ethical implications for a sitting Supreme Court justice, including whether the Supreme Court’s own rules apply to the justice themselves, whether they should be subject to the standards of everyone else in the federal judiciary, and the whys and wherefores of judges not doing anything to appear overtly partisan." Let's not be "splitting hairs over the ethical niceties of this or that particular episode," he pleads.

"This wasn’t merely a matter of the household of a sitting Supreme Court justice improperly demonstrating a partisan preference in a public way. This was a bold declaration of affinity for and alignment with the smoldering insurrection led by a president of the same party that had just been put down but which still loomed as a threat to civic order, the peaceful transfer of power (which at that point had still not yet happened), and the rule of law."

In the days after the attack on the Capitol, Washington Post reporter Robert Barnes was aware of the upside-down flag at the Alitos' home, but, the Washington Post explained in May 2024:

"The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said. It was not clear then that the argument was rooted in politics, the spokeswoman said."

There was a dispute with neighbors (they have text messages), but that one hadn't yet happened when Alito told reporters there had been a dispute. So, again, why was the flag up?

Alito lied about the reason the flag was up because he didn’t know the couple had text messages establishing the date of when the incident took place. They were supporting the insurrection. www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/u...

[image or embed]

— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) May 28, 2024 at 6:44 PM

putting up a "stop the steal" sign in response to this is not any better than putting it up because you read something on 4chan! it's not exonerative at all! the intent and meaning is still the same!

[image or embed]

— Michael (@fleerultra.bsky.social) May 17, 2024 at 10:31 AM

this dude is basically the nation’s leading expert on legal ethics, we are so cooked.

[image or embed]

— Peter (@notalawyer.bsky.social) May 18, 2024 at 11:23 AM

Also, at Alito's beach house, an "Appeal to Heaven" flag was flown. CNN explains: "The 'Appeal to Heaven' flag, as it is commonly called, also stands outside of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office in the Capitol building and has been proudly displayed by other Republican lawmakers. It has also appeared among crowds at far-right rallies and at the January 6 Capitol insurrection."

When it was revealed that Justice Abe Fortas received $15,000 for teaching a seminar at American University, conservatives howled so much that they blocked his elevation to chief justice and then forced his resignation.

[image or embed]

— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) May 30, 2024 at 7:52 AM

Appears to have been a regular thing: www.regent.edu/news/justice... www.regent.edu/news/supreme...

[image or embed]

— Sarah Posner (@sarahposner.bsky.social) May 30, 2024 at 8:23 AM

He co-taught the seminar with Regent Law Dean Mark D. Martin.

Documentary filmmaker made a secret recording of Sam Alito. "He endorsed what his interlocutor described as a necessary fight to 'return our country to a place of godliness.'" www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

[image or embed]

— Sarah Posner (@sarahposner.bsky.social) Jun 10, 2024 at 12:34 PM

Alito will not be subpoenaed to testify before the Senate committee because the Senate votes aren't there at either the committee level or at the full Senate level.

Rolling Stone: Alito objects to ProPublica exposé

Elites

Elites aren't entirely self-made and self-sustaining. From where do they receive support? From so-called "think tanks."

"Alejandro Chafuen, an Argentine American businessman who took over the Atlas Network presidency in 1991 and remained in charge until 2018, once described the network’s audience in one word: elites.

'To answer the question ‘Who is the real customer of a think tank?’' he said, 'I will refer to the often ignored passage of Ludwig von Mises, in his book Bureaucracy. In it he describes a type of person — elite — who I believe is not only the real customer of Atlas and many think tanks, but also our ideal customer, who benefits us and is served by us.'"

— Meet the Shadowy Global Network Vilifying Climate Protesters For decades, the Atlas Network has used its reach and influence to spread conservative philosophy—and criminalize climate protest. Amy Westervelt and Geoff Dembicki, New Republic, September 12, 2023

-
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

In case you missed it

Have you seen inside the book 'To Climates Unknown'?

The alternate history novel To Climates Unknown by Arturo Serrano was released on November 25, the 400th anniversary of the mythical First ...