[ And the grift that just keeps giving (or is it taking?) The
fullest accounting yet shows how Thomas has secretly reaped the
benefits from a network of wealthy and well-connected patrons that is
far more extensive than previously understood.]
[[link removed]]

CLARENCE THOMAS’ 38 VACATIONS: THE OTHER BILLIONAIRES WHO HAVE
TREATED THE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE TO LUXURY TRAVEL  
[[link removed]]


 

Brett Murphy and Alex Mierjeski
August 10, 2023
ProPublica
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]

_ And the grift that just keeps giving (or is it taking?) The fullest
accounting yet shows how Thomas has secretly reaped the benefits from
a network of wealthy and well-connected patrons that is far more
extensive than previously understood. _

And the grift that just keeps giving (or is it taking?), Alex
Bandoni/ProPublica. Source Images: mikroman6 and Bloomberg

 

During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has
enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine.
A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated
him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the
premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch
him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737. It’s a
stream of luxury that is both more extensive and from a wider circle
than has been previously understood.

Like clockwork, Thomas’ leisure activities have been underwritten by
benefactors who share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence.
Their gifts include:

At least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported
voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an
additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and
college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at
luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to
an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.

This accounting of Thomas’ travel, revealed for the first time here
from an array of previously unavailable information, is the fullest to
date of the generosity that has regularly afforded Thomas a lifestyle
far beyond what his income could provide. And it is almost certainly
an undercount.

While some of the hospitality, such as stays in personal homes, may
not have required disclosure, Thomas appears to have violated the law
by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports
tickets, according to ethics experts.

Perhaps even more significant, the pattern exposes consistent
violations of judicial norms, experts, including seven current and
former federal judges appointed by both parties, told ProPublica.
“In my career I don’t remember ever seeing this degree of largesse
given to anybody,” said Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who
served for years on the judicial committee that reviews judges’
financial disclosures. “I think it’s unprecedented.”

This year, ProPublica revealed Texas real estate billionaire Harlan
Crow’s generosity toward Thomas
[[link removed]],
including vacations, private jet flights, gifts, the purchase of
his mother’s house
[[link removed]] in
Georgia and tuition
[[link removed]] payments.
In an April statement
[[link removed]],
the justice defended his relationship with Crow. The Crows “are
among our dearest friends,” Thomas said. “As friends do, we have
joined them on a number of family trips.”

The New York Times recently surfaced VIP treatment
[[link removed]] from
wealthy businessmen he met through the Horatio Alger Association, an
exclusive nonprofit. Among them were David Sokol, a former top
executive at Berkshire Hathaway, and H. Wayne Huizenga, a billionaire
who turned Blockbuster and Waste Management into national goliaths.
(The Times noted Thomas gives access to the Supreme Court building for
Horatio Alger events; ProPublica confirmed that the access has cost
$1,500 or more in donations per person.)

Records and interviews show Thomas had another benefactor, oil baron
Paul “Tony” Novelly, whose gifts to the justice have not
previously been reported. ProPublica’s totals in this article
include trips from Crow.

Each of these men — Novelly, Huizenga, Sokol and Crow — appears to
have first met Thomas after he ascended to the Supreme Court. With the
exception of Crow, their names are nowhere in Thomas’ financial
disclosures, where justices are required by law to publicly report
most gifts.

 

From left to right, H. Wayne Huizenga, David Sokol and Paul “Tony”
Novelly. These business magnates apparently came into Clarence
Thomas’ life after he was appointed to one of the most sacrosanct
positions of power in American government.  
The total value of the undisclosed trips they’ve given Thomas since
1991, the year he was appointed to the Supreme Court, is difficult to
measure. But it’s likely in the millions.

Huizenga sent his personal 737 to pick Thomas up and bring him to
South Florida at least twice, according to John Wener, a former flight
attendant and chef on board the plane. If he were picked up in D.C.,
the five-hour round trip would have cost at least $130,000 each time
had Thomas chartered the jet himself, according to estimates from jet
charter companies. In February 2016, Thomas flew on Crow’s private
jet from Washington to New Haven, Connecticut, before heading back on
the jet just three hours later. ProPublica previously reported the
flight, but newly obtained U.S. Marshals Service records reveal its
purpose: Thomas met with several Yale Law School deans for a tour of
the room where they planned to display a portrait of the justice.
(Crow’s foundation also gave the school $105,000, earmarked for the
“Justice Thomas Portrait Fund,” tax filings show.)

Don Fox, the former general counsel of the U.S. Office of Government
Ethics and the senior ethics official in the executive branch, said,
“It’s just the height of hypocrisy to wear the robes and live the
lifestyle of a billionaire.” Taxpayers, he added, have the right to
expect that Supreme Court justices are not living on the dime of
others.

Fox, who worked under both Democratic and Republican administrations,
said he advised every new political appointee the same thing: Your
wealthy friends are the ones you had before you were appointed. “You
don’t get to acquire any new ones,” he told them.

Thomas and Novelly did not respond to a detailed list of questions for
this story. Huizenga died in 2018 and his son, who is the president of
the family’s holding company, also did not respond to multiple
requests for comment.

In a statement
[[link removed]] to
ProPublica, Sokol said he’s been close friends with the Thomases for
21 years and acknowledged traveling with and occasionally hosting
them. He defended the justice as upright and ethical. “We have never
once discussed any pending court matter,” Sokol said. “Our
conversations have always revolved around helping young people,
sports, and family matters.”

“As to the use of private aviation,” he added, “I believe that
given security concerns all of the Supreme Court justices should
either fly privately or on governmental aircraft.”

The justices have said
[[link removed]] they
follow court rules prohibiting them from accepting gifts from a group
of people so frequently that “a reasonable person would believe that
the public office is being used for private gain.” But what actually
constitutes a gift under those rules is ambiguous and, in practice,
justices have few restrictions on what they can accept. Other members
of the court have accepted travel underwritten by wealthy businessmen
and speaking invitations at universities. Stephen Breyer accepted a
flight to a Nantucket wedding from a Democratic megadonor. Ruth Bader
Ginsburg took a tour of Israel and Jordan paid for by an Israeli
billionaire. Those gifts are public because Breyer and Ginsburg
disclosed them.

Thomas, however, is apparently an extreme outlier for the volume and
frequency of all the undisclosed vacations he’s received. He once
complained that he sacrificed wealth to sit on the court, though he
depicted the choice as a matter of conscience. “The job is not worth
doing for what they pay,” he told
[[link removed]] the
bar association in Savannah, Georgia, in 2001, “but it is worth
doing for the principle.”

To track Thomas’ relationships and travel, ProPublica examined
flight data, emails from airport and university officials, security
detail records, tax court filings, meeting minutes and a trove of
photographs from personal albums, including cards that Thomas’ wife,
Ginni, sent to friends. In addition, reporters interviewed more than
100 eyewitnesses and other sources: jet and helicopter pilots, flight
attendants, airport workers, yacht crew members, security guards,
photographers, waitresses, caterers, chefs, drivers, river rafting
guides and C-suite executives.

ProPublica has not identified any legal cases that Huizenga, Sokol or
Novelly had at the Supreme Court during their documented relationships
with Thomas, although they all work in industries significantly
impacted by the court’s decisions.

In a small-circulation biography given to Huizenga’s friends and
family, Thomas acknowledged that he and Huizenga discussed some of the
billionaire’s companies but said their relationship was never
transactional. “It wasn’t that kind of friendship,” he told the
interviewer. The justice said they’d prefer to go to a small
restaurant in a strip mall or sit on the billionaire’s lawn and
drink tea or diet soda.

“We are in a society where everything is quid pro quo,” Thomas
said, but not with the Huizengas. “I don’t do anything for them
and they can’t do anything for me.”

“Four Lucky Couples”

On Labor Day weekend 2019, Thomas boarded a private plane in
Washington, D.C., for the first leg of a sojourn out West. The
vacation had been months in the making and, thanks to Sokol, it was
all taken care of. He’s hosted the Thomases virtually every summer
for a decade.

The first stop was the Great Plains. It was the home opener at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which Ginni Thomas had attended before
transferring. The Thomases were joined there by other couples,
including one of the justice’s most vocal advocates, Mark Paoletta,
who then worked for the federal government, and his wife.

Sokol, a major university donor who graduated from the Omaha campus,
arranged for the group to attend the football and volleyball games
with all-access passes. Clarence Thomas met with the football team the
day before the game. The group walked out of the tunnel before
kickoff. During halftime, they stood on the sidelines to watch the
marching band perform, at one point posing for a picture in the end
zone: “The Sokols took four lucky couples to the first Nebraska
footbal game of the season,” Ginni Thomas wrote in one of the card
captions.

 

Sokol, back left, has arranged for Thomas and others to attend several
sporting events at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The invitations
come with all-access passes and seats in a luxury suite. The
justice’s wife, Ginni, has memorialized some of these trips in cards
to friends.  (Credit: Obtained by ProPublica)
Sokol runs a private equity firm and now also chairs a holding company
that owns large international shipping and power utility corporations.
He resigned from Berkshire Hathaway in 2011 amid an internal
investigation by the company that found he had violated its insider
trading policy. (At the time, Sokol denied wrongdoing
[[link removed]] and said his resignation
was unrelated to the episode; he was never indicted.)

That Saturday, the group watched both the football and volleyball
games from luxury suites. The football skybox, which typically costs
$40,000 annually, belonged to Tom Osborne, a former Republican
congressman who was also the head coach of the team for 25 years.
Hosting the Thomases had ripple effects. A local priest requested a
ticket for his 87-year-old mother, but the volleyball coach had to
tell him none was available. “All of our tickets have been taken for
Clarence Thomas and his group,” the coach wrote.

The Thomases have been treated to at least seven University of
Nebraska-Lincoln games — five arranged by Sokol — in recent years.
The Times first reported on Thomas’ appearances at some of them.

Thomas has never reported any of those tickets on his yearly financial
forms. Judiciary disclosure rules require that most gifts worth more
than $415 be disclosed. “It’s so obvious,” said Richard Painter,
former chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush.
“It all has to be reported.” ProPublica identified more than 60
federal judges who disclosed tickets to sporting events between 2003
and 2019. In 1999, Thomas disclosed private flight and accommodations
for the Daytona 500 but hasn’t reported any other sporting events
before or since.

In a statement, Osborne confirmed Thomas has “watched a couple of
football games” in his suite, which the university had given to him.
He said he is “taxed” for the use of the suite but did not answer
whether Thomas has ever reimbursed him. The University of
Nebraska-Lincoln did not respond to requests for comment.

 

On Labor Day weekend, 2019, the group sat in former football coach and
ex-congressman Tom Osborne’s suite. Osborne told ProPublica he and
the justice became friends years ago, when he was in office.
 (Credit: Obtained by ProPublica)
The day before the football game, Thomas met with the team. Sokol
arranged these visits in emails with the athletic department.
 (Credit: Twitter)
On Sunday, the morning after the football game in Nebraska, Sokol flew
with Thomas by private jet to Sokol’s Paintbrush Ranch just outside
Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The property, valued in the low eight figures,
sits in the foothills of Shadow Mountain. A local radio
[[link removed]] personality
said of the estate: “This is the ultimate home and it has the most
iconic view of the Tetons I’ve seen. Ever.”

Sokol also owns a waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
currently worth $20.1 million, where he’s hosted the Thomases as
well, according to photos of the visits. The 12,800-square-foot
property includes a home theater, elevator, walk-in wine cellar and
yacht docking. (In addition, Sokol and Thomas have shared an opulent
lodge together while vacationing at Crow’s private lakeside resort,
Camp Topridge, in the Adirondacks.)

 

Sokol’s ranch outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which he sold in 2020,
is a sprawling, 9,000-square foot estate in the foothills of Shadow
Mountain, designed like a lodge.  (Credit: Realtor Website. Personal
information redacted by ProPublica.)
The Thomases and others spent several days at the ranch in late summer
2019.  (Credit: Realtor Website. Personal information redacted by
ProPublica.)
 

In Wyoming, the Thomases fished, rafted on the Snake River and sat by
a campfire overlooking the Teton Range with the other couples. At one
point, the Paolettas serenaded the justice with a song they wrote
about him.

Like Thomas, Paoletta did not disclose the trip on his
yearly financial filings
[[link removed]].
At the time, Paoletta was general counsel and the designated ethics
official at the Office of Management and Budget
[[link removed]]. In a statement, Paoletta said he
wasn’t required to disclose the trip because he had reimbursed
Sokol, but he did not say how much or provide documentation of those
payments. “I complied with all ethics laws and regulations,”
Paoletta said.

 

After the football game in Nebraska, Sokol flew the group, including
the Thomases, to his opulent ranch overlooking the Teton Range. They
rafted, fished and sat by a campfire. At one point, Mark Paoletta and
his wife serenaded the justice.  (Credit: Obtained by ProPublica)
Details of the vacation to Nebraska and Wyoming were drawn from
photographs, trip planning emails and social media posts, as well as
interviews with airport workers, local residents and others familiar
with the travel, including river raft guides.

Since 1990, Sokol and his wife have donated more than $1 million to
Republican politicians and groups, along with smaller amounts to
Democrats. Last October, in New Orleans, Sokol made a direct reference
to a pending Supreme Court case while addressing a group of former
Horatio Alger scholarship recipients. (Thomas was not in attendance.)

The speech veered into territory that made many of those in attendance
uncomfortable and left others appalled, emails and others messages
show. Sokol, who has written extensively about American exceptionalism
and the virtues of free enterprise, minimized slavery and systemic
racism, some felt. He then criticized President Joe Biden’s student
loan forgiveness plan, arguing Biden had overstepped the
government’s authority, according to a recording of the speech
obtained by ProPublica.

“It’s going to get overturned by the Supreme Court,” Sokol
predicted, echoing a common legal commentary.

He was right. This summer, the court struck down Biden’s student
loan forgiveness plan. Thomas voted in the majority.

 

Sokol has also hosted the Thomases and others at his mansion in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. The waterfront property, which comes with yacht
docking, has a private movie theater, among other luxuries.  (Credit:
Obtained by ProPublica)
Deep Sea Fishing in the Caribbean

Nearly every spring, Novelly, a billionaire who made his fortune
storing and transporting petroleum, takes his two yachts on a fishing
expedition to the Bahamas’ Exuma Islands. Photographs from the trips
show porcelain beaches, cerulean waters and fresh mahi-mahi. Friends
and family come and go for days at a time.

Three of Novelly’s former yacht workers, including a captain, told
ProPublica they recall Thomas coming on board the vessels multiple
times in recent years. Novelly’s local chauffeur in the Bahamas said
his company once picked Thomas up from the billionaire’s private jet
and drove him to the marina where one of the yachts, Le Montrachet,
frequently docks.

Le Montrachet, named after the premium French wine, is a 126-foot
luxury vessel complete with a full bar, multiple dining areas, a baby
grand piano, accommodations for 10 guests and a handful of smaller
fishing boats and jet skis. Novelly charges about $60,000 a week
[[link removed]] to
outsiders who want to charter it.

 

Novelly often takes his luxury yacht, Le Montrachet, on fishing
expeditions around the Bahamas’ Exuma Islands. The billionaire’s
former yacht workers said Thomas was one of his guests.  (Credit:
CharterWorld Website)
Another past guest on Novelly’s yacht is “Alligator” Ron
Bergeron, one of the biggest land and roadway developers in Florida.
Around 2018, Novelly and Thomas went to Bergeron’s private ranch on
the edge of the Everglades — a sprawling, gated estate with
centuries-old cypress trees and an 1800s-style saloon on site. He
described Novelly as a man who likes to share his success with others.
“He’s very generous with all his friends,” Bergeron told
ProPublica.

Bergeron said his conversations with Thomas at the ranch were strictly
about charity work and not business. “You’re talking about a great
man,” Bergeron said, “who gives his time to make a difference for
America.”

Since 1999, Novelly’s family and companies have publicly disclosed
at least $500,000 to conservative causes and Republican candidates in
federal elections. (Before then, he had given to both parties.)

Novelly, who recently stepped down from his CEO roles, ran his
business affairs aggressively, ending up on the wrong side of the
government in at least two cases. He spends much of his time between
St. Louis and Boca Raton, Florida, where he has a 23,000 square-foot
palatial estate appraised at $22.2 million. In 2002, Novelly
established residency and a holding company in the Virgin Islands.
During a hearing with local officials, Novelly described the
arrangement there as a “quid pro quo,” meaning the U.S. territory
received a boost to the local economy in return for offering
substantial tax breaks. The IRS would later call it an “abusive tax
avoidance scheme” and pursued Novelly for millions in back taxes and
penalties. Novelly denied the characterization and eventually settled
with the government for a negotiated amount.

There’s no evidence his friendship with Thomas helped Novelly in one
of his most significant disputes. In 2005, the Justice Department
sued Novelly’s company
[[link removed]],
Apex Oil, because its corporate predecessor had contributed to a
massive groundwater contamination beneath an Illinois village and then
Apex refused to help with the cleanup. Apex argued the spill had
occurred before the company went through a bankruptcy years earlier.
Several judges ruled against Apex, which eventually appealed to the
Supreme Court in 2010. The justices declined to hear the case, and the
company had to pay about $150 million to help remove oil from the
soil.

It’s not clear how Thomas voted in the case because such votes are
not typically public. The vacations ProPublica identified appear to
have occurred after the case was resolved.

In 2020, Apex Oil, Sokol and Crow helped fund a documentary defending
Thomas as a response to an HBO film that was critical of the
justice. Sokol called the HBO movie
[[link removed]] a
“Molotov cocktail into our homes” and a prime example of
America’s eroding civility.

The “Most Coveted” Invitation in the World

Thomas’ first billionaire benefactor is likely H. Wayne Huizenga,
believed to be the only person in American history to build three
separate Fortune 500 companies. One of the three was AutoNation, which
Huizenga founded in 1996 before building it into the largest car
dealer in the country. Between 1998 and 1999, Huizenga’s holding
company spent $500,000 lobbying federal agencies that regulate the
automotive industry, according to OpenSecrets data. Over the years,
the Huizenga family and companies gave millions to state and federal
Republican candidates and once threw a fundraiser for the Florida GOP
that helped keep the party afloat for months.

The billionaire was known to regularly lavish gifts and perks on those
in his orbit. He routinely took friends on opulent vacations. He paid
his employees handsomely and sometimes covered their bills and
personal expenses. On a whim, Huizenga once handed box tickets for the
opera, which were worth thousands, to his caterer, Bob Leonardi.

“I led the life of a multimillionaire without being one,” Leonardi
said.

 

Huizenga’s employees frequently saw Thomas around the
billionaire’s mansion in Fort Lauderdale. Bob Leonardi, middle, was
Huizenga’s caterer for years and said his boss liked to share his
wealth with friends and employees.  (Credit: Obtained by ProPublica)
For 20 years, Thomas benefited from Huizenga’s attention as well,
availing himself of the billionaire’s fleet of aircraft and other
luxuries. Huizenga took Thomas to see the Miami Dolphins and Florida
Panthers several times between the mid-’90s and mid-2000s, according
to interviews and photographs. Huizenga owned both teams at the time.

Executives saw Thomas around Huizenga’s office often. Richard
Rochon, the former president of Huizenga Holdings, said Thomas once
shadowed the billionaire during meetings. “He just wants to see what
I do every day,” Rochon recalled Huizenga saying.

On at least two occasions, Thomas attended Huizenga’s birthday and
Christmas parties, which the billionaire held inside his private
hangar at the Fort Lauderdale airport. Van Poole, a lobbyist and
former chairman of the Florida GOP, recalled riding down the elevator
at the nearby Hyatt Pier 66 hotel — which Huizenga also controlled
— when the Thomases stepped in with a security detail. The group
discussed college sports and then traveled to the party together,
Poole said.

Thomas occasionally flew on Huizenga’s helicopters, sometimes taking
off from the roof of the corporate headquarters, and at least one of
his Gulfstream jets around Florida, according to his former pilots.
But the billionaire’s most luxurious planes were a pair of 737 jets
he had retrofitted like a lounge, complete with recliners, love seats,
mahogany dining and card tables and gourmet food.

At least two times in the mid 2000s, Huizenga sent one of them to pick
up Thomas and deliver him to Fort Lauderdale, said John Wener, the
flight attendant on board.

 

Huizenga owned a fleet of aircraft that he kept in a private hangar at
the Fort Lauderdale airport. Two of the planes were 737 jets he had
retrofitted to look like lounges. He sent those planes to pick up
Thomas at least twice and deliver him to South Florida, according to a
flight attendant on board.  (Credit: Lynne Sladky/AP Photo  //
 ProPublica)
Wener recalled chatting with the justice about his nomination to the
Supreme Court and the tumultuous Senate confirmation hearings after
Thomas’ former aide, Anita Hill, accused him of sexual harassment.
“He said, ‘Just imagine a job interview and you’re in front of
100 people that hate you,’” Wener recalled Thomas remarking.
“‘How would that interview go?’”

In the early 2000s, Huizenga gave Thomas something that was priceless
at the time: a standing invitation to his exclusive, members-only golf
club, the Floridian. Designed by golf legend Gary Player, the course
was lined with cottages for Huizenga’s friends, a yacht marina for
them to dock and a helipad if they wanted to fly in. One family friend
told the Huizenga family biographer that the Floridian was “the most
coveted private golf invitation in the world.” Those who worked and
played there said the membership rolls were a Rolodex of the rich,
famous and powerful: From Michael Douglas and Rush Limbaugh to Michael
Bloomberg and former Vice President Dan Quayle. Donald Trump once
asked to be a member but Huizenga spurned him, according to three of
Huizenga’s former employees.

All 200-plus members were “honorary” and didn’t pay dues —
Huizenga covered everything. “It was a little slice of heaven, a
magical place,” former media personality Matt Lauer told the
biographer. “You drove through the gates and it was this fairytale
land that he had created.”

 

One of the crown jewels of Huizenga’s business empire was the
Floridian golf and yacht club. When Huizenga owned the property, he
gave honorary invitations to some 200 close friends without charging
them an initiation fee or dues. Thomas was seen by several employees
at the club over the years.  (Credit: Floridian Website)
It’s unclear if Thomas was a member or Huizenga’s frequent guest
with similar privileges. The billionaire’s former personal
photographer and two former golf pros at the club recalled seeing
Thomas there multiple times over the years. One of Huizenga’s
helicopter pilots said he had picked the justice up from the property.
And a fifth employee, a former waitress and concierge, said she once
served Thomas and Huizenga, who were wearing golf attire, as they
dined alone in the enormous waterfront clubhouse for lunch. “Have
you met a Supreme Court justice?” Huizenga asked the waitress before
she took their order. “This is Clarence Thomas.”

Today, the Floridian, which the Huizenga family sold in 2010 before it
underwent renovations, has a $150,000 initiation fee
[[link removed]].

Paying for Access to the Supreme Court Chambers

Thomas first met Huizenga at a formal gala in Washington, D.C., in
1992, when they were both inducted into the Horatio Alger Association.
Henry Kissinger and Maya Angelou were among the other honorees that
year. The organization, named after the 19th-century novelist who
popularized rags-to-riches folklore, gives millions in college
scholarships each year and also brings together some of the
country’s wealthiest, self-made business tycoons for opulent events.
(In real life, Alger was a minister on Cape Cod who resigned from his
parish after he was credibly accused of molesting boys.)

“We were proud to honor Justice Thomas more than 30 years ago,” an
association spokesperson said in a statement, “and remain grateful
for his continued involvement in our organization.” She said Thomas
spends countless hours mentoring scholarship recipients.

 

Thomas met Huizenga in 1992 at their induction ceremony in Washington,
D.C. They became close friends for decades afterward and the
billionaire, who died in 2018, regularly hosted Thomas in Florida.
Thomas acknowledged the pair occasionally talked about business but
said their relationship was never transactional.  (Credit: Obtained
by ProPublica)
Thomas appears to have met Huizenga, Sokol, Novelly and Bergeron
through the organization. Several of Thomas’ trips to Florida in the
2000s appear to have been connected with the association. In that time
period, he joined Huizenga at Horatio Alger scholarship ceremonies in
South Florida, travel that the justice disclosed
[[link removed]] in
several of his yearly financial filings.

However, he never identified Huizenga in any of his disclosures. The
association spokesperson confirmed to ProPublica that the billionaire
hosted those events “and covered all costs involved.”

Related:  How Harlan Crow Slashed his Tax Bill by Taking Clarence
Thomas on Superyacht Cruises
[[link removed]]

Experts said that means Thomas’ disclosures would be, at a minimum,
incomplete and misleading because the rules require federal judges to
identify the source of the gifts they receive. “Source means the
person or entity that paid for it,” said Kathleen Clark, a legal
ethics authority at Washington University in St. Louis.

Belonging to the association has had its privileges. As part of a
board meeting, the Thomases once went on a lavish trip to Jamaica,
where they were hosted by a wealthy donor who owned a luxury hotel
atop a former sugar plantation. Johnny Cash performed. Horatio Alger
Association membership itself is worth at least $200,000, according to
the organization’s meeting minutes in 2007, a sum that those who
nominate a new member are responsible for raising in that person’s
honor. The association spokesperson said there was no requirement to
raise money for new members back when Thomas was inducted.

Thomas has likely helped the group earn many times that figure since
then. Every year, the justice hosts an event for members inside the
Supreme Court’s Great Hall. The Times previously reported that the
event afforded the Horatio Alger Association unusual access to the
court.

 

Membership into the Horatio Alger Association itself comes with a
price tag. The association requires members to donate at least
$200,000 on behalf of new inductees. A spokesperson said that when
Thomas was inducted there wasn’t a donation requirement.  (Credit:
Obtained by ProPublica. Highlights by ProPublica)
ProPublica examined boxes of the association’s historical archives,
including financial records that show the group has required donations
of at least $1,500 — $7,500 for nonmembers — to attend the Supreme
Court event. In 2004, those who donated $100,000 for a table at the
main ceremony got 10 seats inside the Supreme Court. In the
judiciary’s code of conduct — which is general guidance that does
not apply to Supreme Court justices, though they say
[[link removed]] they
consult it — there is explicit language advising federal judges
against using their position to fundraise for outside organizations.

 

Financial records from the Horatio Alger Association archives show the
group has been fundraising off of an event hosted by Thomas inside the
Supreme Court building.  (Credit: Obtained by ProPublica. Highlights
by ProPublica.)
But that’s what Thomas has done, said Virginia Canter, a former
government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties
and reviewed the association’s financial records at ProPublica’s
request.

“To use the Supreme Court to fundraise for somebody’s charity is,
to me, an abuse of office,” she said. Canter acknowledged the
organization may do good work, but that’s besides the point, she
said, because wealthy donors aren’t supposed to be able to pay
thousands of dollars to visit a justice inside the courthouse walls.

“It’s pay to play,” Canter added, “isn’t it?”
 

_Josh Kaplan
[[link removed]] and Justin Elliott
[[link removed]] contributed
reporting._

_[BRETT MURPHY is a reporter on ProPublica’s national desk.
His work
[[link removed]] uncovering
a new junk science known as 911 call analysis won a George Polk Award,
among other honors.   [email protected]_

_ALEX MIERJESKI is a research reporter at
ProPublica.   [email protected]   @Amierjeski
[[link removed]] ]_

_[Do you have any tips on the Supreme Court? Brett Murphy can be
reached by email at [email protected] and by Signal or
WhatsApp at 508-523-5195. Justin Elliott can be reached by email
at [email protected] or by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240.
Josh Kaplan can be reached by email
at [email protected] and by Signal or WhatsApp at
734-834-9383.]_

* Clarence Thomas
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* grift
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* GOP
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