Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledges he should have disclosed free trips from billionaire donor
The trips include vacations in Indonesia and at the exclusive, men’s-only Bohemian Grove retreat, which were first reported by ProPublica last year.
By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged for the first time in a new financial disclosure filing that he should have publicly reported two free vacations he received from billionaire Harlan Crow.
The pair of 2019 trips, one to Indonesia and the other to the Bohemian Grove, an all-male retreat in northern California, were first revealed by ProPublica. Last year, Thomas argued that he did not need to disclose such gifts. “Justice Thomas’s critics allege that he failed to report gifts from wealthy friends,” his lawyer previously said in a statement issued on the justice’s behalf.
“Untrue.”
In the new filing released Friday, however, Thomas amended his financial disclosure for 2019, writing that he “inadvertently omitted” the trips on his previous reports.
Last year, ProPublica documented an array of undisclosed luxury vacations and other gifts Thomas has received over the years from several billionaires, including Crow. ProPublica revealed Crow had treated Thomas to numerous private jet flights and international yacht cruises, covered private school tuition for Thomas’ relative, and paid Thomas money in an undisclosed 2014 real estate deal.
Legal ethics experts said that Thomas appeared to have violated the law by failing to disclose the trips and gifts.