Nicole Wallace is just reporting that Harlan Crow...

[brush]

Last edited Thu Apr 13, 2023, 10:11 PM - Edit history (2)

a GOP mega-donor purchased the house Clarence Thomas' mother lives in several years ago and spruced it up. Thomas didn't disclose it. This news is just coming to light.

I'm waiting to hear if Thomas' nother lives there rent-free or not.

What a shady deal. Why couldn't Thomas fix up his own mothers house? The man is not living hand to mouth where he can help his own mother.

This smells/looks so bad. Thomas already seems corrupt with not reporting the two-decade long acceptance of millions of dollars of gift, luxury trips, now it looks like he is a wholly-owned, in-the-pocket justice of Harlan Crow.

My God.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. ProPublica deserves a Putlizer Prize!

[mobeau69]

6. ✔️

[Pinback]

14. Yes. And they deserve our support.

I donate to them every year and encourage everyone who has room in their budget to support Pro Publica financially. I also have one of their coffee mugs and a T-shirt, which looks nifty and is comfortable.

[Tanuki]

30. Yes! Link to donate:

https://give.propublica.org/give/346423/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=141278

[calimary]

33. Oh GOOD! Thanks!

[AllyCat]

69. Great idea! I just donated!

[Pinback]

75. Excellent - thank you! (nt)

[krkaufman]

31. Seems appropriate ...

Seems appropriate that this reporting is coming out somewhat concurrent to the ’60 Minutes’ whitewashing interview of Marge Greene. Really highlights great journalism vs what passes for it in most venues.

[Sneederbunk]

2. Senator Durbin?

[mobeau69]

3. It doesn't look bad, it is bad. The only good thing about it is it's going to get worse.

Down goes Thomas. Down goes Thomas.

[MontanaMama]

45. Harry Littman said exactly that.

The IS bad.

[Cha]

47. And that's Good.. TY!

Link to tweet

[Hortensis]

4. SO bad. Seriously disgusting that he would ever allow

ANYone else to pay to do basic refurbishing of his mother's home. And that he didn't do it himself.

How does he integrate this with his black nationalist and patriarchal ideology, btw, and his belief that remaining independent of white America is critical to protecting the strength of black people, males especially?

[Caliman73]

38. Yeah. He likely does not believe that at all...

He believes in his own power and status. Whatever will allow him to live the lifestyle he believes he deserves is what he believes.

[Hortensis]

63. :) Yeah. I can't see that his ideology has a valid intellectual

basis anyway, seems mostly made up to indulge his many bad personality traits, on judicial issues also, not just his taste for sips of a billionaire lifestyle.

Ideologically, he believes in black patriarchy and thinks Jim Crow-level oppression makes black men more powerful, that integration and equality are institutionalization of racism that destroys them. His intensely racist answer to save black people from white is nationwide black self segregation from white. He claims the constitution so intensely antiblack that it can never not be harmful, even if it were entirely rewritten -- which he's almost in a position to largely do.

A nasty, extremist creep who sold his mother's home to a white billionaire who apparently allows her to live in his property as part of a favor to Justice Thomas. Because just standard purchasing of judicial favor isn't low enough.

[MacKasey]

5. Clarence Thomas needs to Resign today!!

[CanonRay]

7. The sale was 133k

but I wonder how much Crow really gave him. I'm suspicious by nature.

[brush]

13. Yep, under the table money could've passed hands.

Thomas is so pitiful. He makes good money. Could afford to fix up his own mothers house.

He's just in Crow's pocket.

SCOTUS...I don't know...someone paid off beer boy's 6-figure depts when he was up for comfirmation.

How deep does the corruption run.

[flying_wahini]

72. And don't you know the others on the SCOTUS are thinking, oh

I’d better call my tax guy…..

[Ms. Toad]

73. Gifts have no tax implications to the recipient.

It is the donor who has to report gifts annually and, if large enough, pay taxes on then at death.

[SunSeeker]

27. He didn't just buy the house for $133k. He spent thousands fixing it up.

New fence, new roof, etc.

[TheBlackAdder]

43. Sale price and appraised price are different. If it wasn't on the market, no competitive bidding.

[AllyCat]

71. 3 lots, one with improvements.

[blue neen]

8. Corrupt Clarence.

He needs to go.

[TNNurse]

9. So a felon was in the White House,

so were are surprised there is another one on the Supreme Court for decades???

[Stuart G]

64. K & R

[H2O Man]

10. Recommended.

The guy is so corrupt.

[spanone]

11. K&R

CORRUPT MOTHERFUCKER

[patphil]

12. Why do I get the feeling we are still only looking at the tip of the iceberg of corruption here.

Clarence Thomas has got to go!

[LiberalFighter]

15. How does someone who never served on the court get appointed to the Supreme Court?

His previous job did not qualify him.
Standards apparently don't mean anything.

[brush]

20. Not defendiing Thomas by any means but he, like the other...

justices was a judge before being confirmed as a SCOTUS justice. You might recall his qualifications were questioned heatedly during the confirmation fight...the Anita Hill affair.

[LiberalFighter]

21. I remember that.

[Celerity]

42. Supreme Court Justices Without Prior Judicial Experience Before Becoming Justices

https://supreme.findlaw.com/supreme_court/justices/nopriorexp.html


Name of Justice Prior Occupations Years On Court Appointed By President:

Elena Kagan U.S. Solicitor General 2010-present Obama

William Rehnquist Asst. U.S. Attorney General 1972-2005 Nixon (Assoc., 1972),
Reagan (Chief, 1986)

Lewis Powell President of the American Bar Ass'n,
Private Practice 1972-1987 Nixon

Abe Fortas Private Practice 1965-1969 Johnson

Byron White Deputy U.S. Attorney General 1962-1993 Kennedy

Arthur Goldberg U.S. Secretary of Labor 1962-1965 Kennedy

Earl Warren Governor of California 1953-1969 Eisenhower

Tom Clark U.S. Attorney General 1949-1967 Truman

Harold Burton U.S. Senator 1945-1958 Truman

Robert Jackson U.S. Attorney General 1941-1954 F. Roosevelt

James Francis Byrnes U.S. Senator 1941-1942 F. Roosevelt

William O. Douglas Chairman of the S.E.C. 1939-1975 F. Roosevelt

Felix Frankfurter Asst. U.S. Attorney, Asst. Secretary of War,
Prof. of Law at Harvard 1939-1962 F. Roosevelt

Stanley Forman Reed U.S. Solicitor General 1938-1957 F. Roosevelt

Owen Josephus Roberts Special Counsel in "Teapot Dome" investigation and trials 1930-1945 Hoover

Harlan Fiske Stone U.S. Attorney General 1925-1946 Coolidge (Assoc., 1925),
F. Roosevelt (Chief, 1941)

Pierce Butler County Attorney, Private Practice 1923-1939 Harding

George Sutherland U.S. Senator 1922-1938 Harding

Louis Brandeis Private Practice 1916-1939 Wilson

James Clark McReynolds U.S. Attorney General 1914-1941 Wilson

Charles Evans Hughes Governor of New York,
U.S. Secretary of State 1910-1916,
1930-1941 Taft (Assoc., 1910),
Hoover (Chief, 1930)

William Henry Moody U.S. Attorney General 1906-1910 T. Roosevelt

George Shiras, Jr Private Practice 1892-1903 Harrison

Melville Fuller Private Practice 1888-1910 Cleveland

Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar U.S. Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Senator 1888-1893 Cleveland

Joseph Philo Bradley Private Practice 1870-1892 Grant

Salmon P. Chase U.S. Treasury Secretary 1864-1873 Lincoln

Samuel Freeman Miller Private Practice 1862-1890 Lincoln

Noah Haynes Swayne U.S. Attorney for Ohio, Ohio Legislator 1862-1881 Lincoln

Nathan Clifford Maine & U.S. Attorney General 1858-1881 Buchanan

John Archibald Campbell Alabama Legislator 1853-1861 Pierce

Benjamin Robbins Curtis Massachusetts Legislator 1851-1857 Fillmore

John McKinley U.S. Senator 1838-1852 Van Buren

Roger Brooke Taney Maryland & U.S. Attorney General,
U.S. Treasury Secretary 1836-1864 Jackson

Henry Baldwin U.S. Congressman 1830-1844 Jackson

Joseph Story Speaker of Mass. House of Reps., U.S. Congressman 1812-1845 Madison

John Marshall U.S. Secretary of State 1801-1835 Adams

Bushrod Washington Virginia House of Delegates,
Reporter for Virginia Court of Appeals 1799-1829 Adams

William Paterson Governor of New Jersey 1793-1806 Washington

John Jay President of the Continental Congress,
U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs 1789-1795 Washington

John Rutledge Governor of South Carolina 1789-1791, 1795 Washington

[onenote]

65. And Thomas did have judicial experience.

Not sure what the point was of the post above that suggested he didn't.

[Effete Snob]

51. Why are you calling Elena Kagen unqualified?

One becomes a Supreme Court justice by being nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Justice Elena Kagen was never a judge prior to her nomination by President Obama.

Chief Justice Earl Warren - the author of Brown v. Board of Education was never a judge prior to his appointment.

Thomas served as an appellate court judge for less than a year prior to his nomination to the Supreme Court.

But what standards are you talking about?

[LiberalFighter]

16. What else did Thomas receive besides the direct payment?

Were the trips part of the deal?

[brush]

17. The trips are yearly, nothing to do with the house deal.

Thomas seems to be in Crow's pocket...all kind of shady stuff going on.

[LiberalFighter]

22. The deal could have been off the books but still tied to the property deal.

[brush]

24. The transcation is on the books (whatever part of it they put on the books)...

the problem is that Thomas didn't disclosed it, just as he hasn't disclosed the two decades of luxury trips he's received from Crow.

Who know's whether there were under the table transaction from Crow to Thomas.

[krkaufman]

32. Why would he need to disclose it?

He asked colleagues and they told him that it was his mother’s affairs, so he had nothing to report.

[brush]

39. Ya think asking colleagues advice covers it? Nah.

Although lax, SCOTUS does have disclosure rules, which is why Thomas is being so roundly criticized.

A Supreme Court justice taking millions of dollars in gifts, and watching Crow fix up his own mother's home instead of he himself, and you see nothing wrong there? And btw, Thomas sold the house to Crow thereby letting Crow be his mother's landlord...if rent is being paid. Who knows.

Why I smell the wafts of corruption right now coming from the steaming pile. Someone is in someone else's pocket.

[bronxiteforever]

50. +100. Correct me if I am wrong but this doesn't

seem like what a Walmart parking lot loving kind of guy would do.

[brush]

54. So true. I had to laugh. A Walmart parking lot my a_ _.

I can just see Thoma driving a big ol' RV into a WalMart lot, struggling to park the big home-on-wheels...NOT.

Thomas never saw a super yacht he didn't salivate over.

[bronxiteforever]

57. +1

[NullTuples]

18. It's Republican swagger; showing their base they're so strong, they don't have to follow rules

That's...very enticing to some substantial portion of humanity, apparently. Align themselves with the most powerful leader and they'll be safe. Align themselves with the most powerful leader who doesn't have to follow the same social or legal rules as the other potential leaders and hey, maybe the followers get to do whatever they please, too. Especially when it comes to wielding power over others.

Because as it stands right now, who is going to take Clarence down if he doesn't resign? Democrats would have to control the House to impeach him and have a two-thirds majority in the Senate to vote him out. And with red state gerrymandering as bad as it is, that is simply not going to be possible. Unless they first pass laws fixing state elections first. But then those laws will go before...the Supreme Court, who has made it clear that they have nothing to do with the way states run their elections. The coup is over, we just don't know it yet.

[FakeNoose]

49. Really? I don't think so. I'm guessing most of the MAGAts have no clue

None of this has ever been reported on Faux Noise, so how would they know?

The ultra-wealthy Repukes probably do know, and they're all for it.

[LisaM]

19. They should have got him during Bush v Gore.

He had a personal conflict of interest, since his wife was on the Bush inauguration committee. The press didn't seem to care. No one called for his recusal.

I am surprised anyone cares now.

[soldierant]

23. Yes, I saw that in ProPublica's newsletter.

The deal made Crom Thomas's mother's landlord.

I've read, heard, and said, "He's so corrupot he'd sell his own mother," but Ive never seen it actually happen before. And it doesn't matter whether she is paying rent or not - Crow legally could demand rent.

[Takket]

25. not a huge deal if he just forgot to report it, but......

was this money laundering?

as someone else said is his mom living there "rent free"?

if this was one isolated incident, no big deal, just say so and report it now. But there is MORE than enough smoke around thomas and Crow now to justify DOJ looking to see if there is any fire. Garland should open up a file for this.

[Major Nikon]

77. His mother definitely still lives there

There's little doubt in my mind she isn't paying rent. Why sell the home if she's going to have to pay rent? It would make no sense. It makes a lot more sense when you realize she's getting all the bills paid, improvements, and not paying rent. That's a huge windfall for Thomas because he could insulate himself from the transaction by claiming it was his mother's interest and not his. The problem is they got greedy and none of this is ever going to add up to anything they can reasonably claim wasn't corrupt as shit.

[bucolic_frolic]

26. I bet billionaires do quite a spruce up

[Pepsidog]

28. Thomas is a traitor to his race and to the Constitution. Crow says he wanted to

preserve for history the second African American USSC Justice’s childhood home. I wonder if he did anything for Thurgood Marshall or Sandra Day-O’Conner who were the first African American Justice and the first woman SC Justice.

[japple]

34. His race has nothing to do with it. n/t

[spooky3]

55. Exactly. And if that truly was his intent, why didn't he disclose

It at the time of purchase?

We’re not as stupid as the Rethug rubes are.

[James48]

29. Failure to report is not the correct charge.

The correct charge would be filing a false financial disclosure report. 18 USC 1001 makes it a five year felony to falsify the required annual financial disclosure statement.

[brush]

36. Ok. Thomas is being criticized roundly lately for...

not disclosing the many luxury trip gifts he's received over the years, the discussion hasn't been about whether the non-disclosures were criminal and should be charged, it was about the seeming corruption of not disclosing the gifts received.

If they were criminal, that's another matter which certainly should be looked at.

[FakeNoose]

52. Maybe the point is that there is NO ethics review for any of the SCOTUS bench

The nation has always held those Justices in the highest regard. It has always been assumed that they are all squeaky clean, until now we're finding out they aren't. Or at least ONE isn't.

Justice John Roberts, where are you?

[brush]

56. The Kennedy/Kavanaugh deal was sketchy too.

Remember beer boy's six-figure debts were paid off during his confirmation fight.

Who did that, and was Kennedy paid to step down so trump could appoint a younger republican?

IMO it's not just Thomas.

[republianmushroom]

35. Where is the IRS investigation.

capital gains tax ?

[Effete Snob]

53. What makes you think he didn't report it on his taxes?

He didn't report it in his financial disclosure statement.

That has nothing to do with what is, or is not, in his taxes.

And if there was an IRS investigation going on, why would you expect to know about it? Do they call you whenever they open one?

[NotVeryImportant]

37. Is she calling it corrupt?

Is she actually using that word, "corrupt" or "corruption?"

If not, it's just more mainstream media claptrap.

[brush]

40. Yes.

[NotVeryImportant]

59. Good

Seems that corruption is a topic that the media doesn't like to broach.

Especially the higher up the corruption goes.

They need to hammer the airwaves w/that word, wherever and to whomever it applies.

[Evolve Dammit]

41. Yeah. No attempt to influence here. Just helping a bud. YGTBFKMe.

[AncientOfDays]

76. That seems to be the excuse

I read article where a couple of right-wing senior judges said there was no problem because Crow didn't have any cases before the SCOTUS.

I read elsewhere that Crow has interests in many of the cases that have come before the SCOTUS -- more information on that needs to be developed.

[Zeitghost]

79. To my knowaldge

Crow has no direct personal or financial interest in any decisions that the court has made.

He has a general interest in advancing conservative causes, but that is not enough to be considered a conflict of interest.

[Evolve Dammit]

80. Indeed. this relationship is decades old.

[Artcatt]

44. GQP...rotten to the core

[MontanaMama]

46. Coke Can Clarence is neck deep in corruption.

We still don’t know who paid off Judge Boof’s debts either.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

48. "Why couldn't Thomas fix up his own mothers house? " why spend my $$ when I can spend yours

[ecstatic]

58. If any of his actions were criminal, an investigation needs to be opened

as soon as possible. We all know Roberts won't do a damn thing about the moral/ethical violations.

[Zeitghost]

81. What would you do if you were Roberts?

?

[ecstatic]

82. If I were Roberts and I cared about appearances and maintaining legitimacy,

I would ask Thomas to resign asap. Once the court loses all legitimacy, there won't be anymore law and order. People will (rightfully) do whatever the f they want.

[Iggo]

60. That's what they used to call money laundering.

[sarcasmo]

62. No ethics oversight, no rules.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

66. Billionaire Harlan Crow didn't just provide lavish travel and accommodations to Clarence Thomas

Link to tweet

[czarjak]

67. Living with both Bush's decisions for decades. We were warned.

[Kid Berwyn]

68. Keeps him next to the signed copy of Mein Kampf.

Along with his assorted collection of Fourth Reich Action Figures.

[DFW]

70. Keep in mind.....

No one was ever led away in handcuffs for a non-disclosure violation, and since Clarence Thomas has zero sense of shame, he will not be resigning his seat on the Supreme Court over this (or anything else, I suspect). I think we will have to hope that Mother Nature decides to take him to task, because I fear he will not be taken down by our legal system. On the contrary, I suspect that he and Alito will continue to pervert it for as long as they possibly can.

[Snackshack]

78. How much longer?

Is the country going to tolerate one political party that is wholly focus on getting what they can no matter who it hurts or kills. The GOP is a homegrown taliban that needs to be put in its place. The GOP no longer governs with America in its best interest. No, they block, lie, obstruct, misinform and now they have killed over 1 million Americans with their criminal behavior on COVID. All the BS the GOP has done since 2000 needs to stop and many of them need to be in jail.

It really is unbelievable how the Dems have sat by and let an impotent AG continue to let the gop that wants nothing more then to destroy them and Democracy operate with impunity, that law enforcement & accountability of someone like Matt Geatz is more than DOJ can handle....apparently. A party that has consistently lied and sat silent while DT called covid a hoax killing a million plus Americans another crime the DOJ seems unconcerned with.

We need to stop asking the GOP politely to please stop throwing rocks at us and start throwing them back. There is no compromise or negotiation that the GOP will do. Our continued survival depends on it or we will end up with a boebert or greene as president.

[Martin68]

83. Corruption.