Justin Elliott

Justin Elliott

Justin Elliott writes at ProPublica, a left-wing journal founded by Herb Sandler and Marion Sandler.

'Report' Smearing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

ProPublica's "investigative reporting" has an agenda to target political opponents. A classic example of this is an article targeting Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for having a "billionaire" friend that has funded travel for the Justice and his family. Authors Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski report that "Thomas has broken long-standing norms for judges’ conduct, ethics experts and four current or retired federal judges said."

From ProPublica:

"In a statement, [Harlan] Crow acknowledged that he’d extended “hospitality” to the Thomases “over the years,” but said that Thomas never asked for any of it and it was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”

Through his largesse, Crow has gained a unique form of access, spending days in private with one of the most powerful people in the country. By accepting the trips, Thomas has broken long-standing norms for judges’ conduct, ethics experts and four current or retired federal judges said.

“It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” said Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton. When she was on the bench, Gertner said, she was so cautious about appearances that she wouldn’t mention her title when making dinner reservations: “It was a question of not wanting to use the office for anything other than what it was intended.”

Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties, said Thomas “seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations.”

“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” said Canter, now at the watchdog group CREW. “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.”

[...]

During just one trip in July 2017, [Clarence] Thomas’ fellow guests included executives at Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, major Republican donors and one of the leaders of the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business conservative think tank, according to records reviewed by ProPublica.

[...]

"“If Justice Thomas received free travel on private planes and yachts, failure to report the gifts is a violation of the disclosure law,” said Kedric Payne, senior director for ethics at the nonprofit government watchdog Campaign Legal Center. (Thomas himself once reported receiving a private jet trip from Crow, on his disclosure for 1997.)

[...]

"ProPublica confirmed that Thomas was on the jet through Supreme Court security records obtained by the nonprofit Fix the Court, private jet data, a New Haven plane spotter and another person at the airport.