Tag Archives: corruption

Pence Defends “Man Of Integrity” Clarence Thomas

Fox News reports: Former Vice President Mike Pence defended Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from what he called malicious attacks against the conservative Black jurist. “Ever since his nomination to the Supreme Court in 1991 Justice Thomas has been maliciously attacked by the Left, including by then Sen. Joe Biden,” Pence said in a tweet. “The attacks on his character …

Read More »

Billionaire Secretly Paid Tuition For Thomas’s “Son”

ProPublica reports: In 2008, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas decided to send his teenage grandnephew to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in the foothills of northern Georgia. The boy, Mark Martin, was far from home. For the previous decade, he had lived with the justice and his wife in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Thomas had taken legal …

Read More »

Roberts Refuses To Testify About Supreme Court Ethics

NBC News reports: Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday declined an invitation from a high-ranking Democratic senator to testify at a congressional hearing on ethics rules for members of the Supreme Court. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Roberts suggested that his participation could pose a threat to judicial independence. “Testimony before the Senate Judiciary …

Read More »

Gorsuch Sold Property To Head Of Major Law Firm

Politico reports: For nearly two years beginning in 2015, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sought a buyer for a 40-acre tract of property he co-owned in rural Granby, Colorado. Nine days after he was confirmed by the Senate for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, the then-circuit court judge got one: The chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, one of …

Read More »

Thomas’ Benefactor Did Have Case Before SCOTUS

Bloomberg News reports: Justice Clarence Thomas said he was advised he didn’t have to disclose private jet flights and luxury vacations paid for by billionaire Harlan Crow because, although a close friend, Crow “did not have business before the court.” But in at least one case, Crow did. In January 2005 the court declined to hear an appeal from an …

Read More »

Thomas To Amend Disclosures To Reflect Home Sale

CNN reports: Justice Clarence Thomas intends to amend his financial disclosure forms to reflect a 2014 real estate deal he made with a GOP megadonor – an acknowledgment that the transaction should have been disclosed almost a decade ago, a source close to Thomas tells CNN. The deal between Thomas and Harlan Crow, a Dallas real estate magnate and long-time …

Read More »

WaPo: Thomas Reported Big Income From Defunct Firm

The Washington Post reports: Over the last two decades, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has reported on required financial disclosure forms that his family received rental income totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a firm called Ginger, Ltd., Partnership. But that company — a Nebraska real estate firm launched in the 1980s by his wife and her relatives — …

Read More »

Senate Dems Under Pressure To Have Thomas Testify

Roll Call reports: Advocacy groups have urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to call Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to testify about his relationship with a billionaire GOP donor, a move experts say would escalate conflict between two branches of government and could lead to a separation-of-powers showdown. Senate Judiciary Chair Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and other Democrats on the …

Read More »

WSJ Board Condemns “Smearing” Of Clarence Thomas

From the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal: The left’s assault on the Supreme Court is continuing, and the latest front is the news that Justice Clarence Thomas has a rich friend who has hosted the Justice on his private plane, his yacht, and his vacation resort. That’s it. That’s the story. Yet this non-bombshell has triggered breathless claims …

Read More »

MI GOP Ex-House Speaker Confesses: I Took Bribes

The Detroit Free Press reports: Former GOP state House Speaker Rick Johnson, two lobbyists and a medical marijuana business owner were charged Thursday in a bribery scheme, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan announced at a press conference in Lansing. Johnson, 70, was the chairman of the state’s medical marijuana licensing board, which approved or denied applications …

Read More »

Senate Dems Vow Action After Thomas Is Exposed For Decades Of Secret Luxury Travel Gifted By Megadonor

Mediaite reports: Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) strongly condemned the revelations in a ProPublica report about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, calling the conservative jurist’s acceptance of luxury travel and other gifts from a Republican megadonor an example of “troubling ethical conduct” and vowing his committee would take action. The report, published Thursday morning, describes Thomas and his wife, …

Read More »

Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From Donor

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 …

Read More »

Top Ohio Republicans Found Guilty On RICO Charges

The Ohio Capitol Journal reports: After more than nine hours of deliberation, a jury on Thursday found former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and state Republican Chairman Matt Borges guilty of felony racketeering charges in connection with a billion-dollar utility bailout that was passed in 2019. Both men face maximum sentences of 20 years. U.S. District Judge Timothy Black will …

Read More »

DOJ Takes Over Corruption Investigation Into Texas AG

The Associated Press reports: Justice Department officials in Washington have taken over the corruption investigation into Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, removing the case from the hands of the federal prosecutors in Texas who’d long been leading the probe. The move was disclosed in a statement by state prosecutors handling their own case against Paxton. It’s the latest development in …

Read More »

Biden Fires Trump-Appointed Architect Of The Capitol

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden has fired the embattled Architect of the Capitol, the official who oversees the U.S. Capitol complex, officials said. The White House said Monday that Brett Blanton’s appointment was terminated. It comes as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he’d lost confidence in Blanton’s ability to do the job. Blanton allegedly misrepresented himself as a …

Read More »

Turkey Detains Over 100 Contractors After Earthquake

The New York Times reports: With anger swelling in Turkey on Saturday over the government’s slow response to Monday’s devastating earthquake and what critics say was shoddy construction, the government began detaining building contractors across the country who it blamed for some of the collapses that have helped drive the death toll above 21,000. More than 100 people were detained …

Read More »

Bolsonaro Accused Of Plot To Overturn Election Result

Reuters reports: A Brazilian senator said on Thursday that a close ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro tried to persuade the senator to join a conspiracy to overturn the far-right leader’s electoral loss last year. Senator Marcos do Val told a news conference that he had been invited to a meeting on Dec. 9 with then-President Bolsonaro by his associate, …

Read More »

Cultist Ex-NYPD Union Head Guilty Of Embezzlement

Bloomberg News reports: The former head of the union representing New York City police sergeants admitted he claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in phony expenses. Edward D. Mullins, 61, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of wire fraud in Manhattan federal court. He said he submitted hundreds of fake expense reports to a Sergeants Benevolent Association fund to cover …

Read More »

Bolsonaro Charged Over $5 Million To Govt Credit Card

Agence France-Presse reports: More than $21,000 splurged at a modest restaurant — $10,700 spent at a bakery in a single day. The public release Friday of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s official credit card expenditures is raising eyebrows in Brazil. More than 27.6 million reais — more than $5 million at today’s exchange rate — was charged to the far-right president’s card …

Read More »

Tampa Police Chief Put On Leave After Flashing Badge To Get Out Traffic Stop Over Golf Cart With No Plate

Florida Politics reports: Tampa Mayor Jane Castor has placed Police Chief Mary O’Connor on administrative leave, pending an investigation into a traffic stop in which O’Connor flashed her badge and asked for leniency. Body camera video shows O’Connor on a golf cart identifying herself as the Tampa Chief of Police and telling the Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputy she hoped he …

Read More »