ProPublica is out with more
new reporting on Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas, according to ProPublica.
Justice Thomas secretly attended
at least two donor events
for the Koch network over the years.
That's the powerful conservative
political organization
supported by the billionaire
Koch brothers.
As ProPublica points out, quote,
That puts Thomas
in the extraordinary position
of having served
as a fundraising drawer
for a network that has brought cases
before the Supreme Court,
including in
one of the most closely
watched of the upcoming term.
Justice Thomas did not respond
to ProPublica's questions for the story,
but a spokesperson
for the network told ProPublica
the idea,
attending a couple of events
to promote a book
or give dinner remarks,
as all the justices
do, could somehow be undue influence.
Just doesn't hold water.
Joining us now,
one of the reporters
who broke this story
for ProPublica, Justin Elliott,
we appreciate your time.
You guys have done a ton
of reporting on this
throughout the course
of the last
several months on this
specifically I think
what's striking to me,
and you factor in the response
from the Coke network spokesperson is
that
these donors aren't paying
to not have dinner with Clarence.
Like,
my assumption is
the donors know what they're getting
when they put this money,
which is why the dinner is set up.
Is that kind of your sense of things?
Yeah.
So, you know, to give you an example
where the Koch network
has these annual summits for donors,
you have to give at least $100,000
to even get an invite.
Some people
give millions out in Palm Springs
every winter.
And Justice
Thomas
went to one of these summits
to have dinner with the donors.
And we talked to a lot of Coke
network staffers who said
this is seen
as basically
giving a perk to these high dollar donors
and which, you know, judges
we spoke to,
judicial ethics experts said this is just
totally beyond the pale in
terms of what a judge should be doing.
Judges aren't supposed to be involved
in either politics or fundraising.
And this is essentially both.
It's interesting
because you've brought some of this
to the forefront
where Justice Thomas has had to now
redo and sort of reveal
some of the things that he has done,
some of the things and gifts
that he has gotten in the past.
But you, your reporter,
also talks about this 2018
flight to Palm Springs.
It's an apparent violation
of federal law. Explain that.
Yeah.
So, you know,
one of the themes of the Supreme Court
is there's actually ironically
very few ethics rules.
But one of basically
the one rule there is, is
if you get expensive gifts
like private jet flights,
you have to disclose them
every year on this annual form.
And another theme with Justice Thomas
and these stories is secrecy.
So this
we found that he was flown on this
private jet
out to Palm Springs for this Coke
donor event.
It's actually still not clear
who paid for that.
The Kochs actually said
they didn't pay for it.
And Justice
Thomas didn't didn't respond to us,
but we would know who paid for it
if the justice had put it
on his annual disclosure form,
as the law requires, as you know,
many ethics lawyers have told us.
So, you know,
as you mentioned,
we reached out to the Supreme Court
and Justice Thomas for comment.
They didn't respond.
Sometimes they respond after the stories
come out. So we'll see.
Still a lot of unanswered questions
there.
Sometimes they respond after stories
come out.
They respond typically
why they don't do it on the front of it.
I've never quite
got my head around the connection
between what the Koch
brothers, their network and their allies
care about at the Supreme Court.
I think that's a really important
part of that,
especially given the case
that's coming up,
which is a huge issue
for not just Koch network,
but conservatives in general.
Lay that out.
Yeah.
One thing
a lot of people don't understand
about the Kochs mean
they're their election spending is
well known,
but they actually also
employ lawyers and fund lawsuits
in the Supreme Court.
Is a very big case
coming up in this upcoming
term in the fall or next spring.
That has to do with the government's
power to issue regulations
and things like the environment,
labor standards,
something that
the Coke Network has long opposed.
And so this case coming up, it's called
super bright.
The Coke Network brought it to court
and you know, the people we spoke to for
this story said
Justice Thomas' undisclosed relationship
with the Koch network
raises questions
about whether he can be impartial
in a case that the Koch network
has brought at the court.
So that's another thing
that, you know, we'll be watching
you reporting a lot on sort of the moneys
given to him by Harlan Crow.
We're given,
you know,
buying the house for his mother
that she can live in for the rest
of her life rent free.
And then
and now you have this information.
Is this just a major
sort of breach and bungling of the norms
that we expect from
particularly the Supreme Court justices?
Yeah.
You know,
another aspect of this story
is that Harlan Crow this Texas
wealthy political donor
who takes Justice Thomas on vacations
around the country and around
the world has taken him
to these retreats in California,
where he where Justice Thomas actually
developed this relationship
with the Koch brothers
at this retreat
called the Bohemian Grove.
And yeah, I mean, I think
what we've been told is that it's
just not a common or sort of
acceptable thing for judges
or justices to be
accepting this kind of largesse year
after year,
private jet flights, free vacations,
the undisclosed real estate transaction
you mentioned.
And and this
you know,
what we found in
this story
is just even more examples of that
from from Harlan Crow, no matter what.
Often
the appearance of influence
is just as problematic
as actually the influence itself.
So thank you so much for joining us.
Really good reporting. Thanks.