GOP Megadonor Involved In Clarence Thomas Scandal Had Business Before Supreme Court
The Republican megadonor whom Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted previously undisclosed gifts from was found to have had business before the high court, according to records.
Earlier this month, Thomas came under fire after an explosive ProPublica report revealed that the conservative justice had not disclosed over two decades of lavish gifts and travel he and his wife, Ginni Thomas, received from their Texas billionaire friend Harlan Crow.
Thomas also did not disclose a 2014 real estate deal to sell three properties to Crow, who is also a GOP megadonor. The justice’s mother is currently living on one of the properties without paying rent. Thomas has since said he reportedly is planning to change his financial disclosure forms to reflect the real estate deal.
The justice responded to ProPublica’s report by saying he was advised he did not have to disclose the luxury vacations and private jet flights paid for by Crow because the real estate mogul “did not have business before the court.”
But according to court records, Crow did have at least one case before the Supreme Court while Thomas was serving as justice. In January 2005, the high court rejected an appeal from a Dallas-based architecture firm seeking over $25 million from Trammell Crow Residential Co. for alleged copyright infringement. The case was first brought to light by Bloomberg on Monday.
When the architecture firm filed its petition to the high court in 2004, the case showed up under the name “Metric Holdings Limited Partnership,” which is a company that court documents say is a “Trammell Crow Entity.” The involved parties mentioned both in the firm’s petition and in the opposition’s response includes Trammell Crow Residential.
There were no notations on the Supreme Court’s decision to decline hearing the firm’s appeal, which almost certainly means that Thomas did not recuse himself from participating in the case. The court filings in the case don’t specifically name Harlan Crow or Crow Holdings, a private investment firm that manages the Crow family’s wealth.
Crow was the CEO of Crow Holdings at the time the architecture firm filed its petition to the Supreme Court. Crow’s office told Bloomberg and CNN that his family had a non-controlling interest in the company at the time, and that Crow Holdings was not involved in Trammell Crow Residential’s operations.
Since the scandal broke, Democrats have pushed for legislation that would require Supreme Court justices to adhere to the same code of conduct that all other federal judges follow. Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has invited Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to testify before the committee about ethics reforms in the judiciary.
