Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted private school tuition payments for a young relative from conservative GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, ProPublica reported on Thursday in another bombshell revelation about the conservative justice’s undisclosed gifts.
Crow paid the private boarding school tuition of Thomas’ grandnephew Mark Martin for at least a month in July 2009, according to a financial statement obtained by the outlet.
A former administrator at Hidden Lake Academy in Georgia told ProPublica Crow footed the $6,000-a-month tuition bill for the entire year, and also paid teen’s tuition at a second boarding school, Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, which happened to be Crow’s alma mater.
The total that Crow paid for Martin’s tuition over the years was unclear, ProPublica reported, but the price of all four years at the two schools could have exceeded $150,000.
The payments are likely to fuel the uproar over Thomas’ acceptance of luxury vacations, private jet travel, megayacht adventures and real estate sales proceeds from Crow. Most of those gifts, like the tuition payments, aren’t mentioned on Thomas’ financial disclosure forms.
Thomas did not return ProPublica’s request for comment. He said earlier that he didn’t think he had to disclose “personal hospitality” from a friend.
In a statement to ProPublica, Crow denied that the justice, or his wife Ginni Thomas, requested his help paying for the schools.
“Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth,” Crow said in the statement. “As part of his desire to perpetuate the American dream for all, and believing education is the great equalizer, he and his wife have supported many young Americans through scholarship and other programs at a variety of schools, including his alma mater.”
At age 6, Martin moved in with the Thomases in Virginia after the justice became his legal guardian around January 1998 following Martin’s father’s arrest. He stayed with the Thomases until he was 19.
Martin told ProPublica he and the Thomases were hosted by Crow on vacations “at least once a year” when he was growing up with them. ProPublica reported last month that Thomas “accepted luxury trips virtually every year” from Crow for more than two decades without reporting them.
ProPublica also found the justice made an undisclosed real estate transaction with the Texas billionaire in 2014 by selling him some Georgia properties. Thomas’ mom still lives in one of those properties and doesn’t pay rent.
Thomas reportedly plans to amend disclosure forms to report the deal, according to CNN.
Mark Paoletta, a lawyer and friend of Thomas, in a lengthy Twitter post on Thursday, defended the justice’s failure to disclose Crow’s tuition payments. He argued that because the billionaire paid the schools directly on behalf of Martin, the payments “did not constitute a reportable gift.” He added that a “great nephew,” another term for grandnephew, doesn’t meet the legal definition of “dependent child” under ethics rules.
Paoletta said Crow offered to pay a year’s tuition for Martin at both schools.
“Justice Thomas never asked Harlan Crow to pay for his great nephew’s tuition. And neither Harlan Crow, nor his company, had any business before the Supreme Court,” Paoletta wrote. “This malicious story shows nothing except for the fact that the Thomases and the Crows are kind, generous, and loving people who tried to help this young man.”
The latest revelation renews pressure on the Senate Judiciary Committee to take stronger action against Thomas and the Supreme Court. The panel held its first hearing on the court’s mounting ethics woes this week.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts declined an invitation to appear before the committee, citing “separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence.”