Clarence Thomas defense falls apart: SCOTUS did review case involving billionaire pal Harlan Crow

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's close friend Harlan Crow, who funded luxury vacations and private jet flights for the justice and his wife, had business before the Supreme Court, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg.

In January 2005, the architecture firm Womack+Hampton Architects LLC filed a petition seeking over $25 million from Trammell Crow Residential Co., which was co-owned by Crow Holdings, for allegedly violating copyrighted building designs. But the court refused to review the appeal and Thomas was not noted to have recused himself or dissented in the one-sentence order issued, according to Bloomberg.

"Given his vast wealth and business interests, it would be supremely naive to think that Harlan Crow would not at some point have a financial interest in the outcome of a case that could come before the Supreme Court," Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel for the D.C.-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Salon. "The fact that such a case apparently did come before the Court in January 2005 is hardly surprising." 

A ProPublica investigation published earlier this month revealed that Thomas accepted luxury vacations around the globe for more than two decades from the Republican megadonor. Crow offered gifts and travel worth tens of thousands of dollars, including a private jet trip and a stay on a private island.

While Thomas has faced scrutiny for failing to disclose that such trips were financed by his billionaire friend, he has defended himself, saying he was advised "by colleagues and others in the judiciary" against doing so since Crow "did not have business before the court."

"What is surprising is that unlike the executive and legislative branches, the Supreme Court has no Code of Conduct and no $20 or $50 cap or other restriction that bars Members of the Court from accepting more expensive gifts from persons who first befriend them after their Court appointment," Canter said. "If they had, it surely would have prevented this type of potential conflict of interest from arising in the first place."

Although the Crow name is not explicitly mentioned in the case caption, a disclosure statement attached to the filing reveals that the corporate parent of Metric Holdings is linked to Trammell Crow Residential Company. Crow's office told Bloomberg that the Crow family held a non-controlling interest in Trammell Crow Residential Company during that period.

When the architecture firm submitted its appeal to the Supreme Court, Crow served as the CEO and chairman of the board at Crow Holdings, a position that he still holds. But in 2017, he stepped down as CEO, according to Bloomberg.

"At the time of this case, Trammell Crow Residential operated completely independently of Crow Holdings with a separate management team and its own independent operations," Crow's office told Bloomberg in a statement.

Crow Holdings only had a minority interest in the parties involved in the case and had no control over any of these entities, the statement said, adding that Harlan Crow and Crow Holdings were not involved in the case.

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There has been growing pressure on justices to increase transparency regarding their financial disclosures and activities. This is not the first time that Thomas has faced allegations of ethical misconduct, including conflicts of interest and failure to disclose his wife's sources of income as required by law. 

Following ProPublica's investigation, CREW filed a complaint calling for both civil and criminal investigations into Thomas' alleged violations of federal law for failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from and property sales to Crow.

"Justice Thomas's acceptance of and failure to disclose these repeated, lavish gifts and shocking real estate sales not only undermines public trust in his ability to serve impartially on the Court, it undermines confidence in the Supreme Court as an institution," CREW President Noah Bookbinder said in the complaint.

Thomas' lack of disclosure about these trips is a clear violation of government ethics law, legal experts say.

But his approach to ethics has long been criticized, especially after he didn't recuse himself from cases that included the involvement of his wife, Ginni Thomas, in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. 

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden earlier this week asked Crow to provide a full account of gifts he has made to Thomas over the years, NBC News reported.

Wyden requested a detailed list of all of Thomas' free flights on Crow's private jets and superyacht, an accounting of federal gift tax returns for gifts made to Thomas or his family and information about three Georgia properties Crow bought from Thomas and his relatives, according to the report.

While there are exemptions from the gift tax for certain payments, Wyden noted, "none of these exemptions appear to apply to any gifts you made to Justice Thomas."

The Supreme Court last month tightened its rules for what judges and justices need to include in annual financial disclosure statements. The change took place just weeks before the ProPublica article was published. 

"Justice Thomas and conservative billionaire Harlan Crow have carried out a decades-long improper financial relationship at the highest levels," Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig said. "Their cozy relationship has undermined the integrity of our nation's highest court — and they must be held accountable."