Clarence Thomas’s billionaire friends
Justice Clarence Thomas reacted with righteous indignation when news broke about the luxury trips that billionaire Harlan Crow lavished upon him.
Except that Thomas compounded his brazen venality by betraying willful gullibility. Because he wanted us to believe that Crow was just an old friend doing what old friends do. But everyone knows Crow wouldn’t have given Thomas the time of day if he were merely a member of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
Crow only befriended and lavished gifts upon him after his appointment to the Supreme Court. And he did so to buy influence, betting that Thomas would be happy to sell it.
But Crow was not the only billionaire who made that bet. Indeed, Thomas’s grift is the gift that keeps on giving.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has enjoyed at least 38 vacations paid for by well-connected billionaires, along with 34 private flights, and a dozen VIP passes to sporting events, according to a new report. ProPublica says it has uncovered additional wealthy benefactors who have funded Thomas’ lavish vacations, all of whom have worked in industries affected by the court’s rulings.
(The Daily Beast, August 10, 2023)
But I bet billionaire Crow thought he was the only one. Evidently, Thomas was as greedy as he was venal. That explains him playing Crow off against three other billionaires, at least.
And lest we forget, Thomas insisted on 60 Minutes that he prefers visiting trailer parks in his RV to flying on private jets to luxury resorts. Then again, thanks to Donald Trump, we now know that, for most Republicans, hypocrisy is a virtue, not a vice.
Thomas goes silent again
For 30 years, Thomas sat like a deaf and dumb mute on the Supreme Court. But then, two years ago, he suddenly began channeling the loquacious former justice, Antonin Scalia. He wouldn’t shut up and seemed equally intent on showing that he was the smartest justice of them all.
But Thomas has yet to react to these latest disclosures. Perhaps that’s because even this shameless hypocrite can’t explain them.
After all, the vacations, flights, and other gifts ProPublica documents amount to judicial bribes. And Democrats who control the Senate Judiciary Committee seem determined to hold him to account for taking them.
What’s more, one billionaire friend is suspicious enough. Four billionaire friends reeks of a pattern or scheme of grifting beyond any reasonable doubt.
Thomas’s defense
Let’s face it. There’s no defending this. Yet here’s the Trumpian defense his Republican enablers are offering:
The New York Times recently ran a lengthy feature that reported Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas once accepted a Super Bowl ring from billionaire Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. But as a variety of outlets and Texas-based papers picked up on the claim, people close to Thomas say the gift was actually an inexpensive replica.
‘I expect the New York Times to issue a retraction on this falsehood, and an apology to Justice Thomas,’ Mark Paoletta, who co-authored Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in his own words, told Fox News Digital.
(Fox News, August 9, 2023)
That’s like being accused of beating your wife, embezzling company money, and faking your Ph.D. And then having your family and friends defend you by insisting you never claimed a Ph.D., just a master’s degree.
Still, what a pathetic defense! Thomas accepted a fake, so that makes his grift okay. Meanwhile, this fake ring shows what a venal fool these billionaires took him for. But that seems as lost on his defenders as it was on him.
A judicial and racial shame
Thomas has brought greater shame upon the Supreme Court than any justice in US history. And that judicial shame is surpassed only by the racial shame he has brought upon Black people.
Indeed, my heart goes out to the esteemed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Because she must be cursing her fate that her historic accomplishment (of becoming the first Black woman on the Court) will be forever associated with his tenure.
In fairness to Thomas, though, all Republican-appointed justices are turning out to be grifting political hacks in judicial garb. He is just distinguishing himself as the black sheep among them.
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