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Clarence Thomas’ connections to wealth and costly holidays run deeper than billionaire businessman and Nazi-enthusiast Harlan Crow. The New York Instances studies that Thomas has milked relationships with the wealthy he made by means of the Horatio Alger Affiliation of Distinguished Individuals, a scholarship affiliation, to learn himself and his spouse.
Due to their Horatio Alger connections, Thomas and his partner, Virginia, have been invited to affix luxurious holidays and events as well as being granted V.I.P. entry to sports activities occasions. Because of the affiliation, Thomas additionally rubbed elbows with the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Ed McMahon throughout a lavish three-day Montana birthday celebration for billionaire industrialist Dennis Washington.
However the connections Thomas made by means of Horatio Alger have benefitted him past lavish journeys. Thomas’ Horatio Alger contacts — together with Washington in addition to investor David Sokol, previously of Berkshire Hathaway — helped fund a documentary that painted him in a heroic gentle after the premier of an HBO film that depicted Anita Hill throughout his affirmation hearings making sexual harassment allegations towards Thomas. The Sokol household additionally hosted Thomas and his spouse at their Montana ranch and their waterfront Florida property. In keeping with the Instances, Thomas has not reported lots of the advantages and items he has acquired from his wealthy and well-connected allies. The justice additionally declined to reply questions from the paper concerning the matter.
Early in his SCOTUS tenure, Thomas did report plenty of private items he acquired, together with flights on non-public planes, cigars, and clothes. However after 2004, when The Los Angeles Instances reported on his disclosures, Thomas ceased reporting to the courtroom sure items and advantages he acquired. A ProPublica investigation in 2023 uncovered the justice’s shut relationship with Crow, a GOP megadonor with a big assortment of Nazi memorabilia and Hitler work, together with journeys on Crow’s non-public jet and yacht totaling tens of hundreds and Crow’s buy of the home the place Thomas’ mom lived. Crow even paid tuition for Thomas’ nephew, who the Thomases have been elevating. After his relationship with Crow got here to gentle, Thomas justified his lack of disclosures, claiming that “colleagues and others within the judiciary” suggested him he didn’t have to report journeys of “private hospitality” from buddies.
Thomas has not solely accepted advantages that granted him entry to locations he in any other case might not have gone, he additionally hosts the Horatio Alger Affiliation’s induction ceremony for brand spanking new members within the Supreme Courtroom’s courtroom, which the Instances notes is “uncommon entry” for an out of doors group. The affiliation has parlayed the entry Thomas offers them to fundraise for scholarships and occasions, per fundraising data reviewed by the Instances.
The courtroom this 12 months up to date its disclosure guidelines to mandate justices report non-public jet journey and comped stays at resorts and resorts, however there’s an exception for “private hospitality,” that means meals, lodging, or leisure that’s not associated to enterprise.
“The Horatio Alger Affiliation has been a house to Virginia and me,” Thomas mentioned when he acquired the affiliation’s highest honor in 2010, including that the affiliation “has allowed me to see my goals come true.”
If his goals have been of undisclosed fancy holidays and V.I.P. entry, then that’s in all probability the case.
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