Texas billionaire Harlan Crow has made hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to Republicans on the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee, which is poised to investigate his ties to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, records show.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) said on Thursday that the panel will inquire into these ties, the latest in a string of criticisms that the Left has leveled against Thomas and his wife, following a ProPublica report that detailed how Thomas has not disclosed taking trips and staying at properties owned by Crow, a real estate developer. The longtime GOP donor has given $450,000 to campaigns and PACs affiliated with Republicans on the Judiciary panel, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
CLARENCE THOMAS RESPONDS TO ACCUSATIONS ABOUT UNDISCLOSED GIFTS AMID OUTCRY
Thomas and his wife, Ginni, released a joint statement on Friday in response to reporting on the trips, noting the justice “was advised” that disclosure of them was not required. The justice may not have had to report the trips, which, according to ProPublica, spanned two decades, since the federal judiciary did not previously have stricter disclosure rules in place.
“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over 25 years. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them,” the couple said in a statement. “Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.”
It’s unclear what the scope of the panel’s investigations could be, and its powers are limited by the GOP controlling the House. All Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee, except for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), have been boosted through donations from Crow, who said in a statement Thursday that Thomas and his wife “never asked for any of this hospitality.” Crow has also given lesser amounts in campaign money to non-Republicans through the years, including $2,800 to centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in 2021 and $8,700 to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) in 2021 while she was a Democrat, filings show.
The Texas billionaire has notably donated $311,100 to committees affiliated with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) since 2001, according to filings. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has received $19,500 in campaign donations since 2015 from the billionaire, according to filings, while Sen. Tom Cotton‘s (R-AR) campaign and joint fundraising committee have taken $23,900 since 2013.
There is no indication that Crow’s contributions were illegitimate or improper, but they’ve come into focus with the announcement of the judiciary panel inquiry. “The ProPublica report is a call to action, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will act,” Durbin said Thursday.
Natalie Yezbick, a Cornyn campaign spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner, “We are thankful for all Harlan has done for the conservative movement and are grateful to call him a friend.”
Crow contributed $13,400 to the campaign for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) between 2014 and 2019, according to filings, and Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-LA) campaign pocketed $8,300 from Crow between 2016 and 2021.
“Broadly, the issue of money and politics is the way it impacts conflicts of interest,” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, senior government affairs manager for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog group, told the Washington Examiner.
One conservative watchdog, however, doesn’t see how Hedtler-Gaudette’s sentiment applies in this case.
“Republicans should refrain from participating in this investigation not because there is some supposed conflict,” Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, told the Washington Examiner. “They should not participate in this investigation because it’s the latest in a decadeslong high-tech lynching of Justice Thomas and is unbecoming of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Dick Durbin should be ashamed of himself, and Senate Republicans shouldn’t dignify his witch hunt by participating.”
The other Republicans whose related PACs or campaigns have received donations from Crow, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), took $73,800 between 2002 and 2021, filings show. Crow’s various donations to Republicans often mention his affiliation with Crow Holdings, the private real estate investment firm founded by his father, Trammell.
“I haven’t talked to Sen. Graham about this issue and he’s out,” Kevin Bishop, a congressional office spokesman for Graham, emailed the Washington Examiner on Friday.
ProPublica‘s Thursday report cited images showing that Mark Paoletta, former general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget under President Donald Trump, accompanied the Thomases and Crow, as well as his wife, Kathy, on a 2019 Indonesia trip. Paoletta, a lawyer for Ginni Thomas, told the outlet that he communicated with an ethics attorney about the trip and reimbursed Crow for costs.
“Justice Thomas wholly complied with the disclosure rules as they were written at the time,” Paoletta told the Washington Examiner. “The ProPublica piece is a dishonest piece of reporting with respect to informing readers what the actual standard was at the time.”
He added, “When you have numerous left-wing ethics experts saying that Justice Thomas’s interpretation was plausible, or reasonable, and you have news reports talking about how the new laws will now require justices to disclose this stuff, to not cite any of that is dishonest.”
Paoletta was referring to how the federal judiciary only recently tightened regulations concerning gift disclosure requirements for Supreme Court justices and federal judges.
The new rules amend an exemption provision under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 that allowed justices not to report “food, lodging, or entertainment received as personal hospitality.” Effective March 14, justices must now disclose the use of private jets, resort stays unrelated to business, and third-party reimbursements, according to a letter.
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The Supreme Court did not return a request for comment.
Spokespeople for Grassley, Cruz, Cotton, Kennedy, Tillis, and Blackburn did not reply to requests for comment. Lee’s office pointed the Washington Examiner to a Twitter thread the congressman posted on Friday slamming the “recent disgusting attempt to discredit Justice Clarence Thomas.”
