# Clarence Thomas secretly accepted luxury vacations from GOP donor without disclosing **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 6, 2023, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252 "2023-04-06T14:10:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/241 "2023-05-04T22:29:36Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > I am so sorry you have given up. Oh, good, now we get the passive-aggressive baiting. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/242 "2023-05-05T01:15:45Z")
A conservative judicial activist directed tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work to Ginni Thomas but specified that her name be left off any paperwork. > **[Judicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas’s wife, urged ‘no mention...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/05/04/leonard-leo-clarence-ginni-thomas-conway/)** > > Leonard Leo told GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to give the spouse of the Supreme Court justice "another $25,000" and to bill a nonprofit organization called the Judicial Education Project. ---
**Author:** ![pseudograph](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pseudograph/32/19768_2.png) [@pseudograph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudograph)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/243 "2023-05-05T12:24:38Z")
Look they were just trying to avoid any appearance of impropriety by, you know, hiding what they were doing. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/244 "2023-05-05T12:28:00Z")
It’s increasingly clear that we’re just seeing the tip of Thomas’s corruption iceberg, and I fully expect another dozen or more instances to be reported on in the coming weeks and months. I still doubt it will lead to Thomas’s ouster, but it couldn’t hurt. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/245 "2023-05-05T13:25:02Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > You know, every time I hear the name “Harlan Crow”, I thought Harlan had a brother, Jim. This is getting meaty. Now it looks like KellyAnn Conway was laundering money for Ginny Thomas. But other than reporters, is any prosecutor looking into this stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/246 "2023-05-05T13:39:16Z")
If there was any appetite at all to do something about this, you would know it by now. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/247 "2023-05-05T14:18:08Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I thought Harlan had a brother, Jim. Well according to Charles Murray’s childishly shit book “Human Accomplishment” [he was Crow’s long lost brother too](https://twitter.com/zeithistoriker/status/1645208599327637505/photo/1). Edit: Also check out the two bros bro-ing out so hard [a painting was commissioned of both of them](https://twitter.com/plmanseau/status/1644770450805870598/photo/2). They’re looking off into the distance; how inspiring? No… absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/248 "2023-05-05T21:27:32Z")
Hmmmmm, I seem to recall from an episode of the Untouchables called “the empty chair” that Al capone started his prison sentence for income tax evasion, 91 years ago today (May 5, 1932). Maybe the US income tax gets the Thomases? 😱 ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/249 "2023-05-05T21:50:01Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Is nobody else not even a little bit surprised that the mother of a Supreme Court justice apparently lives in a home that’s worth less than $133,000? I’m considerably less surprised by this after being [made aware of Thomas’ treatment of his own sister that he was bragging about in speeches he made](https://greensboro.com/thomas-sister-is-no-welfare-queen/article_b0ec5042-0ac7-583b-94df-4771404be433.html): > [@](#): > > In an often-quoted speech that he delivered to a conference of black conservatives in 1980, Thomas said of his sister, who was then on welfare: “She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check. That’s how dependent she is.” > > “What’s worse is that now her kids feel entitled to the check too. They have no motivation for doing better or getting out of that situation.” > > To hear Thomas tell it, his sister sounded like a classic “welfare queen”, a painful example of how a well-intended government handout can tie families to a cycle of poverty and dependency. Of course, his entire story, on top of being just real psycho shit behavior, was also untrue: > [@](#): > > When reporters recently tracked down Thomas’ sister, Emma Mae Martin, living in a beat-up frame house in Pin Point, Ga., they didn’t find a story of welfare dependency. > > Instead, they found a story of hard work by three generations of a family struggling like most other families do, just to make ends meet. > > Martin was deserted by her husband in 1973, just as her father had disappeared 25 years earlier. She worked two minimum-wage jobs while her brother attended law school, but stopped working to take care of an elderly aunt who had suffered a stroke. That led to four or five years on welfare, trying to make it on $169 a month. > > That’s over. She now works as a cook at the same hospital where her mother is a nurse’s assistant. > > What about her children, who Thomas said were being indoctrinated into welfare dependency? > > As it turns out, Mark, 22, works as a carpenter. Christine, 20, recently was laid off from a bakery. Leola, 15, is still a student. > > And the eldest, Clarence, served aboard the battleship Wisconsin during Operation Desert Storm. > > There may be true stories to be found of welfare cheats. Emma Mae Martin is not one of them. In fact, her story sounds more like the story of a mom who did what you’re supposed to do: Finish school, work hard, take care of your family and raise your kids to do the same. Wasn’t fully aware of just how much of a piece of shit Thomas has be known to be for just how long. What a fuckstick. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/250 "2023-05-05T22:20:44Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Wasn’t fully aware of just how much of a piece of shit Thomas has be known to be for just how long. What a fuckstick. Well, you wouldn’t because Republicans used to do a better job of covering this up: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8hv2i5gZgyM/maxresdefault.jpg "Clarence Thomas Accuser Angela Wright Talks Kavanaugh Allegations (HBO)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hv2i5gZgyM&t=1m36s) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/251 "2023-05-05T22:35:53Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Wasn’t fully aware of just how much of a piece of shit Thomas has be known to be for just how long. What a fuckstick. He’s even worse: > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I recommend you listen to the podcast, [Behind the Bastards on Clarence Thomas.](https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-the-clarence-thomas-story-99759984/) It is quite the eye-opener. (There are four parts to that podcast…the link is only to Part 1.) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/252 "2023-05-06T00:17:13Z")
_Behind the Bastards_ is a great podcast, brought to you by Robert Evans who was the main driving force behind [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com) before it was gutted. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/253 "2023-05-06T00:17:44Z")
Didn’t someone just go to jail for not reporting private school tuition as income… it rings a faint bell. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/254 "2023-05-06T03:02:35Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > He’s even worse: Yes I’ve just started that pod cast on your recommendation. It answer such questions as to why Thomas’s mom lives in a $133,000 house. (its because he hates her for shoving him off on his estranged father). As for his sister, the only reason that Clarence managed to get were he is is that his said estranged father was well off and took over his and his brothers care from his poverty stricken mother. However the father didn’t consider girls to be worth his time so he only raised the boys and left Clarence’s sister in poverty. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/255 "2023-05-06T04:19:06Z")
Food for thought, if not already mentioned. > **[The polite struggle to do something — anything — about Clarence Thomas](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/05/05/polite-struggle-do-something-anything-about-clarence-thomas/)** > > Democrats are figuring out what it actually looks like to hold the Supreme Court accountable for Clarence Thomas. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/256 "2023-05-06T05:55:57Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > estranged father Correction: Rechecking the podcast it was his grandfather not his estranged father. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/257 "2023-05-06T14:00:33Z")
FWIW the YouTuber LegalEagle has published his take on Clarence Thomas. Worth a watch: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/suVD6h7WkcQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Astonishing Corruption at The Supreme Court") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suVD6h7WkcQ) ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/258 "2023-05-06T14:33:08Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Food for thought, if not already mentioned. Interesting article, thanks @Dr_Paprika . It mentions Weinstein coming back as early as next week. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/259 "2023-05-06T17:25:17Z")
It’s truly astounding to me that anyone could be this dense. Is this satire or a fake account or something? > ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252/260 "2023-05-06T17:34:52Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > It’s truly astounding to me that anyone could be this dense. Is this satire or a fake account or something? You mean this guy? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Eum23dPZ-Yg/maxresdefault.jpg "Does Mike Pence still believe Donald Trump is a good man?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eum23dPZ-Yg) Pence is so ethically hollow he gives mannequins a bad name. Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarence-thomas-secretly-accepted-luxury-vacations-from-gop-donor-without-disclosing/982252.md?page=14)