Billionaire Harlan Crow bought property from Clarence Thomas in undisclosed deal | Hacker News Reader

Billionaire Harlan Crow bought property from Clarence Thomas in undisclosed deal

propublica.org

71 pointsGeekette31 comments

Thomas sure claims ignorance of the law a lot more than I'd expect of a Supreme Court Justice. You'd think he would have picked up a thing or two over the decades.

What he picked up was that he didn't even have to hide his contempt for the law any more. He can't just flaunt it, yet, but he doesn't have to bother working hard to hide it, either. Laws are for little people and Democrats. That's what he picked up.

No one seems to know the percentage that Clarence owns with two other co-owners of the said property.

"Here's $1, Mom"

Chathum County property deed https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23774272-warranty-de...

From the article,

> 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.

Unless you're saying that he perjured himself in the 80s, it's hard to see how he'd end up with a $1 stake without triggering a necessary disclosure.

Well, we already know of one case in which he failed to disclose a “necessary disclosure” - I agree he probably maintained his one third share until selling it to Crow, but given his behavior it’s not exactly unreasonable to question whether there’s more to the story.

A child gifting his parent.

That doesn't appear to be an exemption

§13104(a)(5) Transactions.—Except as provided in this paragraph, a brief description, the date, and category of value of any purchase, sale or exchange during the preceding calendar year which exceeds $1,000—

..(A) in real property, other than property used solely as a personal residence of the reporting individual or the individual’s spouse; or

..(B) in stocks, bonds, commodities futures, and other forms of securities.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/13104

an awful lot of years went by to skate under the radar.

He reported a 1/3 interest in the property from the 80s through 2015, contrary to the original claim that "nobody knows" what his stake in the property is. That he reported any interest in 2015 is peculiar, because the sale occurred in 2014.

https://www.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04...

and yesterday, he updated his claim.

What's the bar they need to reach here to accomplish something? My limited understanding here is that Congress can impeach but it has to pass both houses.

Is there a scenario where an actual crime had been committed and the traditional legal process can remove a Supreme Court judge?

Can't the local jurisdiction indict him here? Irrespective of whether or not it ends up back in the Supreme Court, wouldn't it be instructive to bring him up on bribery charges?

This is pretty big. Not only did Crow buy the house & then Thomas failed to disclose the sale (which he is obligated to do)… Crow also made a huge donation to Ginni Thomas’s organization, out of which Ginni received a fat salary.

He also made $36k in improvements for Thomas’ mother who still lives there.

> 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.

He also bought the house next door and razed it. They were loud partiers, not that that is at all relevant of course. /s

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