ProPublica reports:
In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.
If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.
For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet.
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You can pretty much guarantee this story will fuel calls on The Hill for the Supreme Court to adopt stricter ethics rules — @propublica @js_kaplan @JustinElliott @Amierjeski Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire https://t.co/UhqChNGhWQ
— Dave Clarke (@davecclarke) April 6, 2023
Major new story today from @propublica: Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From GOP Donor
Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire https://t.co/6IXQ6SZfOo @js_kaplan @JustinElliott @Amierjeski
— Charles Ornstein (@charlesornstein) April 6, 2023