Reactions to yet the latest report on how Republican megadonor Harlan Crow lavished previously undisclosed funds to aid Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' lifestyle are pouring in swiftly. On Thursday, ProPublica reported that the billionaire paid the tuition of Thomas' great-nephew, whom Thomas had legal custody of, while the teen attended first private school and then boarding school.
The investigative outlet reported that a July 2009 bank statement from an unrelated court filing revealed that Crow paid then-teenage Mark Martin's tuition while he attended Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in northern Georgia, in 2008, amounting to over $6,000 a month at the time. A former Hidden Lake administrator, Christopher Grimwood, also told ProPublica that Crow paid for Martin's tuition at Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, which Martin had attended before and after Hidden Lake Academy. The school was Crow's own alma mater.
The exact amount Crow paid in tuition fees for Martin is unclear, ProPublica reports, but the cost could have amounted to over $150,000 if Crow footed the bill for both schools, according to public records of the schools' tuition rates from that time.
This latest revelation comes after last month's reports that Thomas had accepted luxury travel from Crow almost every year for decades, prompting U.S. senators and government watchdog leaders to speak out about the report on Twitter.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., questioned how bad "the stench" of these discoveries must get before SCOTUS gets involved.
"When does the stench get bad enough that SCOTUS stops the cover-up and ends the mischief? This is on the Chief Justice to solve, plain and simple. Mom's rent, family tuition, vacations and gifts — and secret? Any other government employee would be fired," he said.
Echoing Whitehouse's opinion, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, called on Chief Justice John Roberts to release a statement regarding Thomas' reported actions:
"Today would be an excellent day to hear directly from Chief Justice Roberts," he said. "It is not some violation of the separation of powers to ask him to defend the basic question: Why does the highest court have the lowest standards?"
In response to the news, Sen. Jeff Merkely, D-Ore., called on lawmakers to rebuild the public's trust in institutions through passing legislation like the SCERT Act, which would hold Supreme Court justices accountable by imposing a code of ethics on them.
"We have work to do to restore public trust in America's institutions," he wrote. "That's why I'm fighting to ban lawmakers from trading stocks with the ETHICS Act and to impose a code of ethics on Supreme Court justices with the SCERT Act. We need to get both of these laws passed!"
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Noah Bookbinder, the president of DC's Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, implied that Thomas' acceptance of these gifts should prompt an investigation.
"Taking these gifts is way beyond the pale. Failing to disclose them is unthinkable; any federal employee would know this," he said. "If this does not lead to a real investigation, and a binding code of conduct and inspector general for the Court, it's hard to imagine what would."
However, Mark Paoletta, the former chief counsel and assistant to former Vice President Mike Pence and friend of Thomas, came to the justice's defense in a statement that also seemed to confirm aspects of the report.
The attorney recounted the story of how Thomas and his wife came to be Martin's legal guardians and decried journalists for not respecting Martin's privacy.
"The Thomases have rarely spoken publicly about the remarkably generous efforts to help a child in need. They have always respected the privacy of this young man and his family. It is disappointing and painful, but unsurprising that some journalists and critics cannot do the same," the statement began.
Paoletta then outlined the details of Thomas' arrangement with Crow regarding Martin's tuition. He wrote that Crow recommended they enroll Martin in Randolph-Macon and offered to pay the first year of his tuition when the Thomases shared that they were struggling to find a school for Martin in 2006, adding that Crow's office said he did not pay Martin's tuition in any other year Martin attended the school.
When Randolph-Macon recommended that Martin attend Hidden Lake for a year, Paoletta continued, Harlan offered to pay the tuition for that year and sent payments directly to the school.
Paoletta called the press' coverage of the revelation "despicable," admonishing it for dragging Martin into "their effort to smear Justice Thomas."
"This story is another attempt to manufacture a scandal about Justice Thomas. But let's be clear about what is supposedly scandalous now: Justice Thomas and his wife devoted twelve years of their lives to taking in and caring for a beloved child—who was not their own—just as Justice Thomas's grandparents had done for him. They made many personal and financial sacrifices to do this. And along the way, their friends joined them in doing everything possible to give this child a future," he said.
He added that Crow's tuition payments "did not constitute a reportable gift" on the justice's part.
"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," Paoletta concluded.
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