Harlan Crow boosted Republicans on Democratic-led panel poised to investigate donor’s Clarence Thomas ties

Texas billionaire Harlan Crow has made hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to Republicans on the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee, which is poised to investigate his ties to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, records show.

Following a ProPublicareport that detailed how Thomas has not disclosed taking trips and staying at properties owned by Crow, the real estate developer, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin ( D – IL) said on Thursday that the panel will look into these ties. This is the most recent criticism the Left has leveled at Thomas and his wife. According to Federal Election Commission papers, the lifelong GOP donor donated$ 450,000 to Republican-affiliated promotions and Systems.

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In response to news of the trips, Thomas and his wife Ginni issued a joint announcement on Friday, noting that the righteousness” was advised” that revelation of them was not necessary. Since the federal court did not previously have stricter reporting rules in place, the fairness may not have had to file the outings, which, according to ProPublica, lasted for two decades.

We have known each other for more than 25 years, and Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our closest peers. In the more than 25 years that we have known them, the partners has traveled with them on a number of community outings, just like friends do. ” At the beginning of my tenure at the Court, I sought advice from my coworkers and others in the bench, and I was told that this kind of personal kindness from close personal friends was not reportable.”

The panel powers’s are constrained by the GOP controlling the House, and it is unclear what the range of its investigations may be. With the exception of Sen. Josh Hawley( R-MO ), all Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee have benefited from donations from Crow, who claimed on Thursday that Thomas and his wife” never asked for any of this hospitality.” According to the filings, Crow has also given non-Republicans smaller sums of money for campaigns over the years, such as$ 2,800 to centrist Sen. Joe Manchin( D-WV ) in 2021 and$ 8,700 to Senator Kyrsten Sinema( I-AZ ) when she was a Democrat.

According to filings, the Texas billionaire has made a notable donation of$ 311,100 to committees connected to Sen. John Cornyn( R-TX ) since 2001. According to filings, Sen. Mike Lee( R-UT) has received$ 19,500 in campaign donations from the billionaire since 2015, while Sens. Tom Cotton‘s (‘s RT-AR ) campaign and joint fundraising committee have raised$ 23,900 since 2013.

Although there is no proof that Crow’s contributions’s were incorrect or illegal, the news of the court panel investigation has focused attention on them. Durbin stated on Thursday that” the ProPublica paper is a call to action, and the Senate Judiciary Committee did work.”

We are appreciative of Harlan’s contributions’s to the traditional exercise and are happy to refer to him as a friend, Cornyn campaign spokesperson Natalie Yezbick told the Washington Examiner.

According to filings, Crow contributed$ 13,400 to Sen. Thom Tillis‘( R-NC ) campaign between 2014 and 2019, and between 2016 and 2021, Senator John Kennedy’s campaign’s received$ 8,300 from Crow.

According to Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, top public affairs coach for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan ethics guardian organization,” the issue of money and politics is the technique it impacts conflicts of interest.”

However, one conservative watchdog doesn’t hear how Hedtler – Gaudette’s sentiment’s holds true in this instance.

Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, advised the Washington Examiner that Republicans should avoid taking part in this analysis because there isn’t any alleged fight. They shouldn’t take part in this investigation because it’s the’s most recent in a long line of high-tech lynching of Justice Thomas and is unworthy of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Republicans don’t participate in Dick Durbin’s witch’s kill, and he should be ashamed of himself.

Sen. Crow has donated to some Republicans’ PACs or campaigns that are related to them. According to filings, between 2002 and 2021, Lindsey Graham ( R – SC ), Chuck Grassley, Ted Cruz, and Marsha Blackburn took$ 73,800. Crow’s affiliation’s with Crow Holdings, the corporate real estate investment company started by his uncle Trammell, is frequently mentioned in his numerous donations to Republicans.

Sen. Graham hasn’t been contacted about this matter, and he’s out’s, according to Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Graham in the legislative work, who sent the Washington Examiner an email on Friday.

ProPublica‘s Thursday report cited images showing that Mark Paoletta, former general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget under President Donald Trump, accompanied the Thomases and Crow, as well as his wife, Kathy, on a 2019 Indonesia trip. Paoletta, a lawyer for Ginni Thomas, told the outlet that he communicated with an ethics attorney about the trip and reimbursed Crow for costs.

The Washington Examiner reported that Justice Thomas” completely complied with the reporting procedures as they were written at the time.” In terms of telling readers what the real basic was at the time,” The ProPublica item is a deceptive piece of reporting.”

When news reports mention how the new legislation will now require magistrates to disclose this information and refrain from citing any of that is dishonest, he continued,” when you have several left-wing ethics experts saying that Justice Thomas’s interpretation’s was believable, or reasonable.”

Paoletta was making reference to the fact that the federal court had just recently tightened rules governing the gift disclosure requirements for federal judges and Supreme Court justices.

The new regulations modify a 1978 Ethics in Government Act provision clause that permitted judges not to file” meals, lodging, or amusement received as individual hospitality.” According to a letter dated March 14, justices are required to disclose the use of corporate jets, hotel stays related to business, and third-party reimbursements.

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A request for comment was never answered by the Supreme Court.

Requests for comment were never answered by representatives for Grassley, Cruz, Cotton, Kennedy, Tillis, and Blackburn. The Washington Examiner was directed by Lee’s position to a Twitter string that the congresswoman had posted on Friday denouncing the” recent disgusting try to undermine Justice Clarence Thomas.”