In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia. It wasn’t a marquee acquisition for the real estate magnate, just an old single-story home and two vacant lots down the road. What made it noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives, reported ProPublica.
The transaction marks the first known instance of
money flowing from the Republican megadonor to the Supreme Court justice. The
Crow company bought the properties for $133,363 from three co-owners — Thomas,
his mother and the family of Thomas’ late brother, according to a state
tax document and a
deed dated Oct. 15, 2014, filed at the Chatham County courthouse.
The purchase put Crow in an unusual position: He now
owned the house where the justice’s elderly mother was living. Soon after the
sale was completed, contractors began work on tens of thousands of dollars of
improvements on the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home, which looks out onto a
patch of orange trees. The renovations included a carport, a repaired roof and
a new fence and gates, according to city permit records and blueprints.
A federal disclosure law passed
after Watergate requires justices and other officials to disclose the details
of most real estate sales over $1,000. Thomas
never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties. That appears to
be a violation of the law, four ethics law experts told ProPublica.
The disclosure form Thomas filed for that year also
had a space to report the identity of the buyer in any private transaction,
such as a real estate deal. That space is blank.
“He needed to report his interest in the sale,” said
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer now at the watchdog group
CREW. “Given the role Crow has played in subsidizing the lifestyle of Thomas
and his wife, you have to wonder if this was an effort to put cash in their
pockets.”
Thomas did not respond to detailed questions for
this story.
In
a statement, Crow said he purchased Thomas’ mother’s house, where Thomas
spent part of his childhood, to preserve it for posterity. “My intention is to
one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the
story of our nation’s second black Supreme Court Justice,” he said. “I
approached the Thomas family about my desire to maintain this historic site so
future generations could learn about the inspiring life of one of our greatest
Americans.”
Crow’s statement did not directly address why he
also bought two vacant lots from Thomas down the street. But he wrote that “the
other lots were later sold to a vetted builder who was committed to improving
the quality of the neighborhood and preserving its historical integrity.”
ProPublica also asked Crow about the additions on
Thomas’ mother’s house, like the new carport. “Improvements were also made to
the Thomas property to preserve its long-term viability and accessibility to
the public,” Crow said.
Ethics law experts said Crow’s intentions had no
bearing on Thomas’ legal obligation to disclose the sale.
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