Audio By Carbonatix
What started as regular “luxury trips” from a Dallas billionaire-slash-GOP megadonor has ended in calls for impeachment for a right-wing Supreme Court justice.
Texas progressives: Time to bust out the popcorn.
Big D real estate titan Harlan Crow has been caught in bed (figuratively speaking, of course) with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. New bombshell reportage from ProPublica details allegations that Thomas hadn’t formally disclosed the Crow-backed trips – which occurred “virtually every year” for more than 20 years – or the outings on the businessman’s “superyacht,” in an apparent violation of federal law.
Thomas is now facing mounting calls for impeachment.
ProPublica reported that such vacations included private-jet jaunts, visits to Bohemian Grove (the all-male California retreat and site of conspiracy theories a-plenty) and stays at Crow’s East Texas ranch.
The justice, who last year helped to torpedo Roe v. Wade, didn’t respond to ProPublica’s questions. For his part, Crow insisted that he’d “never discussed a pending or lower court case with Thomas” nor “sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.”
Still, some progressives in Congress want to see Thomas impeached.
“This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response. “Thomas must be impeached.”
This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.
Barring some dramatic change, this is what the Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights. https://t.co/t8fnGLVhbV
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 6, 2023
Dallas-born Crow is the son of Trammell Crow, a legendary Texas real estate tycoon. A 2011 New York Times article notes that Harlan Crow is friendly with the Bush political dynasty and had donated nearly $5 million to conservative groups and GOP campaigns.
In the Supreme Court’s modern history, Crow’s supposed gifts to Thomas are unparalleled both in terms of frequency and extent, according to ProPublica.
The mogul’s buddies would also apparently enjoy access to Thomas during these trips, per the article. Such guests included political activists and corporate executives from companies like Verizon.
Politico reported in 2011 that Crow had given $500,000 to a conservative political advocacy nonprofit founded by Thomas’ wife, Virginia. He also purportedly once gifted the justice a “$19,000 ‘Frederick Douglass Bible’ … and donated $150,000 to build a new wing named for Thomas at a Savannah, Georgia, library that Clarence Thomas visited frequently in his youth.”
