To Asia for $500,000
US judges were probably invited to luxury trips
4/7/2023 1:43 am
A Republican real estate tycoon has been giving the Supreme Court’s longest-serving judge luxury travel for years, according to media research. A trip to Indonesia alone costs $500,000. The welcoming billionaire speaks of usual hospitality.
According to a media report, the arch-conservative US constitutional judge Clarence Thomas has accepted gifts in the form of luxury trips from a Republican billionaire for years. As the US research foundation Propublica reported, real estate magnate Harlan Crow paid the longest-serving Supreme Court judge a trip to Indonesia, which alone may have cost $500,000. According to Propublica, it can prove with dozens of interviews and internal documents that Thomas accepted the expensive gifts without reporting them.
Thomas, 74, accompanied Crow to an exclusive California men’s wilderness resort and properties in the US states of Texas and New York. He is also said to have accepted a flight on a private jet and a yacht ride. Crow told Propublica that his gifts to the constitutional judge were “no different from the hospitality we offer to our many other dear friends.”
The report shows that the Supreme Court is the “least accountable” institution in the US central government, said the organization “Fix the Court”, which is committed to reforming the Supreme Court. The New York Times called Thomas and Crow’s friendship “unusual and ethically sensitive” back in 2011. According to the research foundation, Crow has donated more than $10 million to Republican political groups, including half a million dollars to a conservative lobby group founded by Thomas’ wife Ginni.