Mrs. Betty Bowers
@BettyBowers
Apparently, Clarence Thomas isn't done tarnishing the reputation of the
Supreme Court.
news.yahoo.com
Lawyers with supreme court business paid Clarence Thomas aide via Venmo
Payments to Rajan Vasisht, an aide from 2019-21, underscore ties between
the justice and lawyers who argue cases in front of him
1:31 PM 耳 Jul 12, 2023
耳
11.3K
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Another affirmative action problem. Bush only appointed him because he's
black. Everbody says so.
The guy is a crook in robes has no business being on the bench also can't do routine clerical work. Totally off topic post. Here in Canada we had boozer Russel Brown resign from the S.C.C. after a drunken incident with a man and 2 woman in a Florida bar no one present took the side of the Judge. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/russell-brown-supreme-court-justice-resigns-1.6873402 be nice to see the videos.
https://nypost.com/2023/07/09/new-york-times-puts-out-another-left-wing-
hit-piece-on-justice-clarence-thomas/
So, judges are not allowed to have friends now, according to The New York
Times.
The liberal organ’s character assassination of Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas continued over the weekend with a hefty hit piece titled
“Where Clarence Thomas Entered an Elite Circle and Opened a Door to the
Court.”
The other 4,000 words are laced with the usual smear and innuendo we’ve
come to expect from the left in their attempts to destroy the court’s most
consequential justice.
Let’s cut to the chase.
This is the Democrats and their media allies undermining an institution
they can’t control.
That’s all.
Their problem with Thomas is that he’s black, conservative and effective.
He is a sleaze it is well documented a street corner guy in Harlem selling watches and reefer has more ethics. Here in Canada S.C.C. Judge Peter Brown had to resign after a drunken fracas in a Florida bar.
Obama was Harvard Law Review. Oprah grew up poor is a billionaire.
What a success story! What a role model!
But, no, the Times and the Dems want to destroy his reputation so that no
impoverished black kid will follow in his footsteps. If you have a single
egalitarian bone in your body, you have to see how detestable their
hatchet jobs are.
Beyond the ‘pal’
The Times sneers at Thomas’ relatively modest financial circumstances —
because he used his brains and work ethic to serve on the Supreme Court
the past three decades rather than make a fortune with Big Law.
“His friendships forged through Horatio Alger have brought him proximity
to a lifestyle of unimaginable material privilege.
“Over the years, his Horatio Alger friends have welcomed him at their
vacation retreats, arranged V.I.P. access to sporting events and invited
him to their lavish parties.”
Billionaire David Sokol is singled out for special attention. In 2015, the
Times notes, “the Sokols hosted the Thomases for a visit to their
sprawling Montana ranch.”
So. What.
In Canada many where aghast when the Trudeau family took a free trip to the island of the Aga Khan.
Check out this massive scoop: “Justice Thomas and Mr. Sokol have enjoyed
royal treatment at [University of Nebraska] football games, sitting in a
suite with all-access passes, according to emails obtained through a
public records request.”
Nice I thought judges and elected officials could not keep gifts over $50. The guy should resign.
Truly heinous behavior.
“One 2020 photo shows the justice and Mr. Sokol standing behind a barbecue
grill, wearing matching white chef’s toques.”
How will the republic survive such an assault?
The Times also went digging for dirt on Thomas’ house purchase in Virginia
and came up with nothing.
He and his wife Ginny “took out a 95 percent loan to buy the $522,000
house [in 1992], property records show. (Since then, the Thomases have
refinanced several times and taken out lines of credit, and . . . property
records indicate that they owe as much as they did when they bought it.)”
In other words, Thomas lives within his means, unlike others in
Washington, DC.
Oh, that the Times would show a smidge of the same curiosity about
“working class Joe” Biden’s lavish real estate holdings and rich friends.
Lots of Hunter Biden stories out there cocaine and whores out of wedlock babies free flights on private aircraft.
Partisan budgets?
You can tell a lot about the dueling Special Counsel presidential probes
from how much taxpayer money they are spending.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, investigating former president Donald Trump’s
handling of classified documents, has spent $9.25 million so far,
according to Justice Department expenditure documents released Friday.
That is almost eight times more than the $1.2 million spent by Robert Hur,
who is investigating President Joe Biden for the same thing.
Smith has been operating longer: 19 weeks by March 31, compared to 11
weeks for Hur.
Smith spent $486,705 per week compared to Hur who spent $108,013. So, on a
pro rate basis, Smith outspent Hur fourfold.
While Smith has a wider scope, it’s clear his office is more energetic and
proactive than Hur’s, and not just because it leaks more.
For example, Smith spent $1.9 million on “contractual services” – which
included $1,674,947 for “litigation/investigative support”.
Hur spent just $29,823 on “contractual services”, and that was just for
“IT services” and “transcripts”. No “litigation” or “investigation.”
You don’t really need to look at the books to know which Special Counsel
is a killer on a mission and which is a pussycat coloring inside the
lines.
How much did Ken Starr spend?
Billionaire Harlan Crow Bought Property From Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal. The Clown Can't Fill Basic Paperwork Or Hire A Competent Secretary?
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Apr 14, 2023, 6:06:28 PM
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Billionaire Harlan Crow Bought Property From Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal.
The transaction is the first known instance of money flowing from Crow to the Supreme Court justice.
Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski
— ProPublica
Apr 13, 2023, 02:56 PM EDT
|
Updated Apr 13, 2023
This story was originally published by ProPublica.
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.
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. (Greg: It is. Thomas is either a crook or incompetent resign fool just a tool.)
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.
The justice’s failure to report the transaction suggests “Thomas was hiding a financial relationship with Crow,” said Kathleen Clark, a legal ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis who reviewed years of Thomas’ disclosure filings.
There are a handful of carve-outs in the disclosure law. For example, if someone sells “property used solely as a personal residence of the reporting individual or the individual’s spouse,” they don’t need to report it. Experts said the exemptions clearly did not apply to Thomas’ sale.
The revelation of a direct financial transaction between Thomas and Crow casts their relationship in a new light. ProPublica reported last week that Thomas has accepted luxury travel from Crow virtually every year for decades, including private jet flights, international cruises on the businessman’s superyacht and regular stays at his private resort in the Adirondacks. Crow has long been influential in conservative politics and has spent millions on efforts to shape the law and the judiciary. The story prompted outcry and calls for investigations from Democratic lawmakers.
In response to that reporting, both Thomas and Crow released statements downplaying the significance of the gifts. Thomas also maintained that he wasn’t required to disclose the trips.
“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends,” Thomas wrote. “As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips.” Crow told ProPublica that his gifts to Thomas were “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”
It’s unclear if Crow paid fair market value for the Thomas properties. Crow also bought several other properties on the street and paid significantly less than his deal with the Thomases. One example: In 2013, he bought a pair of properties on the same block — a vacant lot and a small house — for a total of $40,000.
The block in Savannah, Georgia, where Texas billionaire Harlan Crow bought property from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Today, the vacant lots Thomas sold to Crow have been replaced by two-story homes.
The block in Savannah, Georgia, where Texas billionaire Harlan Crow bought property from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Today, the vacant lots Thomas sold to Crow have been replaced by two-story homes.OCTAVIO JONES FOR PROPUBLICA
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In his statement, Crow said his company purchased the properties “at market rate based on many factors including the size, quality, and livability of the dwellings.”
He did not respond to requests to provide documentation or details of how he arrived at the price.
Thomas was born in the coastal hamlet of Pin Point, outside Savannah. He later moved to the city, where he spent part of his childhood in his grandfather’s home on East 32nd Street.
“It had hardwood floors, handsome furniture, and an indoor bathroom, and we knew better than to touch anything,” Thomas wrote of the house in his memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son.”
He inherited his stake in that house and two other properties on the block following the death of his grandfather in 1983, according to records on file at the Chatham County courthouse. He shared ownership with his brother and his mother, Leola Williams. In the late 1980s, when Thomas was an official in the George H.W. Bush administration, he listed the addresses of the three properties in a disclosure filing. He reported that he had a one-third interest in them.
Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 1991. By the early 2000s, he had stopped listing specific addresses of property he owned in his disclosures. But he continued to report holding a one-third interest in what he described as “rental property at ## 1, 2, & 3” in Savannah. He valued his stake in the properties at $15,000 or less.
Two of the houses were torn down around 2010, according to property records and a footnote in Thomas’ annual disclosure archived by Free Law Project.
In 2014, the Thomas family sold the vacant lots and the remaining East 32nd Street house to one of Crow’s companies. The justice signed the paperwork personally. His signature was notarized by an administrator at the Supreme Court, Perry Thompson, who did not respond to a request for comment. (The deed was signed on the 23rd anniversary of Thomas’ Oct. 15 confirmation to the Supreme Court. Crow has a Senate roll call sheet from the confirmation vote in his private library.)
Thomas’ financial disclosure for that year is detailed, listing everything from a “stained glass medallion” he received from Yale to a life insurance policy. But he failed to report his sale to Crow. (Greg: Yes it is illegal off to prison Clarence you gonna be a crip or blood start your own car a valued jailhouse lawyer protective custody or just try to wing it.)
Thomas’ signature on the deed for his deal with Crow.
Thomas’ signature on the deed for his deal with Crow.CHATHAM COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT
A 2014 photograph shows the vacant lots that Crow bought from Thomas.
A 2014 photograph shows the vacant lots that Crow bought from Thomas.CHATHAM COUNTY METROPOLITAN PLANNING COMMISSION.
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Crow purchased the properties through a recently formed Texas company called Savannah Historic Developments LLC. The company shares an address in Dallas with Crow Holdings, the centerpiece of his real estate empire. Its formation documents were signed by Crow Holdings’ general counsel. Business records filed with the Texas secretary of state say Savannah Historic Developments is managed by a Delaware LLC, HRC Family Branch GP, an umbrella company that also covers other Crow assets like his private jet. The Delaware company’s CEO is Harlan Crow.
A Crow Holdings company soon began paying the roughly $1,500 in annual property taxes on Thomas’ mother’s house, according to county tax records. The taxes had previously been paid by Clarence and Ginni Thomas.
Crow still owns Thomas’ mother’s home, which the now-94-year-old continued to live in through at least 2020, according to public records and social media. Two neighbors told ProPublica she still lives there. Crow did not respond to questions about whether he has charged her rent. Soon after Crow purchased the house, an award-winning local architecture firm received permits to begin $36,000 of improvements.
Drawings illustrate some of the improvements made to Thomas’ mother’s home after Crow bought it.
Drawings illustrate some of the improvements made to Thomas’ mother’s home after Crow bought it.OBTAINED BY PROPUBLICA
Crow’s purchases seem to have played a role in transforming the block. The billionaire eventually sold most of the other properties he bought to new owners who built upscale modern homes, including the two vacant lots he purchased from Thomas.
Crow also bought the house immediately next door to Thomas’ mother, which was owned by somebody else and had been known for parties and noise, according to property records and W. John Mitchell, former president of a nearby neighborhood association. Soon the house was torn down. “It was an eyesore,” Mitchell said. “One day miraculously all of them were put out of there and they scraped it off the earth.”
“The surrounding properties had fallen into disrepair and needed to be demolished for health and safety reasons,” Crow said in his statement. He added that his company built one new house on the block “and made it available to a local police officer.”
Today, the block is composed of a dwindling number of longtime elderly homeowners and a growing population of young newcomers. The vacant lots that the Thomas family once owned have been replaced by pristine two-story homes. An artisanal coffee shop and a Mediterranean bistro are within walking distance. Down the street, a multicolored pride flag blows in the wind.
Do you have any tips on the courts? Justin Elliott can be reached by email at ***@propublica.org or by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240. Josh Kaplan can be reached by email at ***@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 734-834-9383.
What is the penalty for not filing the disclosure info properly for years and years? If he was forced to resign or jailed there goes the conservative majority and Biden could appoint a trans, abortion freek who identifies as a space alien.
If Thomas was being flown on a private jet was the gas and pilot expenses a tax write off for the billionaire owner that is text book corruption.
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We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Yeah whatever.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
J. Edgar Hoover who headed the F.B.I. for decades a fag tranny said there was no Mafia and that MLK who he illegally tapped his phone and hotel rooms was a communist
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
4 year washout.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
Trump had gays right behind his lectern at speeches.
President Trump boosted the economy,
Then it crashed.
reduced illegal invasions,
That he did.
appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.
Just like he promised over and over.