A new report by the nonprofit organization ProPublica recently revealed US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ extensive history and ties with the ultrawealthy, raising new questions over the figure’s unreported luxury gifts.
The report states Thomas received numerous gifts during his three decades as a justice, including 38 destination vacations (including a yacht voyage around the Bahamas), 26 private jet flights, eight helicopter flights, a dozen VIP passes to costly sporting events, two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica, and an open invitation to an “uber-exclusive golf club that overlooks the Atlantic coast.”
Thomas received such gifts since 1991, the report finds, and they total somewhere in the millions, though it is difficult to estimate, for example: a five-hour round trip flight on a 737 from Washington, DC, to South Florida, which Thomas received from one powerful friend, is estimated to cost $130,000.
Citing ethics experts, the report points out Thomas’ failure to disclose his luxurious gifts such as airfare, sports tickets, and yacht sailing appears to have violated the law, though staying in the homes of personal friends is an apparent nonissue, even if they are multimillion-dollar mansions.
“In my career I don’t remember ever seeing this degree of largesse given to anybody,” said Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who served for years on the judicial committee that reviews judges’ financial disclosures. “I think it’s unprecedented.”
Friends of Thomas who provided the gifts include Harlan Crow, a Texas real estate billionaire who gifted the justice vacations, private jet flights, a house for the Thomas’ mother, and private boarding school tuition for Thomas’ grandnephew. The friendship between Crow and Thomas has been reported on previously.
“[The Crows] are among our dearest friends,” Thomas said in defense of his actions in April. “As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips.”
A report in early July by a New York journal revealed the justice’s friendship with wealthy businessmen whom he met through the Horatio Alger Association, which claims to be “one of the nation’s largest need-based privately-funded college scholarship providers.” The association is based in Alexandria, Virginia.
Those men include David Sokol, a former top executive at Berkshire Hathaway, and H. Wayne Huizenga, a billionaire businessman who founded AutoNation, Waste Management Inc., helped build Blockbuster, and was the owner or co-owner of several sports teams. Huizenga died in 2018.
It was through this association Thomas met these men, and it was Thomas who gave the association access to the Supreme Court in order to host events; in fact, the events required access of $1,500 or more in donations per person, even though the judiciary’s code of conduct explicitly discourages federal judges from using their power to fundraise for “outside” organizations.
The report also identified Thomas’ other influential friend as oil baron Paul “Tony” Novelly. According to former yacht employees which includes a captain, Thomas joined Novelly on his yacht in the Bahamas multiple times in recent years.
A chauffeur also confirmed his Bahamas-based company picked Thomas up from the billionaire’s private jet and drove him to the marina, where one of Novelly’s yachts—a 126-foot luxury vessel with a full bar, dining areas and accommodations for 10 guests—was docked.
The report further revealed Novelly’s family donated at least $500,000 to conservative causes and Republican candidates in federal elections.
“It’s just the height of hypocrisy to wear the robes and live the lifestyle of a billionaire,” said Don Fox, a former general counsel of the US Office of Government Ethics and the senior ethics official in the executive branch.
Fox added he gives all political appointees – Democrats and Republicans, the same advice: Your wealthy friends are only those you met before you were appointed, and “you don’t get to acquire any new ones.”
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Sokol has hosted Thomas and his wife, Virginia Thomas, nearly every summer for a decade, including gifting the couple (at least five times) tickets to college football games, which Thomas did not report on his yearly financial forms. Gifts worth more than $415 must be disclosed, according to judiciary disclosure rules.
Sokol also flew with Thomas by private jet to his Paintbrush Ranch outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a ranch worth tens of millions. He has also hosted the couple at his $20.1 million mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“We have never once discussed any pending court matter,” Sokol told the outlet of his relationship with Thomas. “Our conversations have always revolved around helping young people, sports, and family matters.”
“As to the use of private aviation,” he added. “I believe that given security concerns all of the Supreme Court justices should either fly privately or on governmental aircraft.”
However, the businessman and his wife have donated more than $1 million to Republican politicians and groups since 1990, and have made some small contributions to Democratic groups as well. Last October, the report reveals, he made a reference to a pending Supreme Court case while making a speech to a group of former Horatio Alger scholarship recipients.
The speech was reportedly awkward, and some of those in attendance were “appalled” by what Sokol had said: he apparently minimized the devastating history of American slavery and systemic racism.
He also criticized US President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, adding it would “get overturned” by SCOTUS. A prediction which ultimately came true this most recent summer, with help from Thomas who voted in the majority against the plan.
