Harlan Crow, chairman and chief executive officer of Crow Holdings LLC, sits for a photograph at the Old Parkland estate offices in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, Oct. 2, 2015.
Chris Goodney | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Monday asked GOP megadonor Harlan Crow for a complete list of gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and evidence that the billionaire real estate developer complied with federal tax law in connection with the long-undisclosed largesse to Thomas.
“This unprecedented arrangement between a wealthy benefactor and a Supreme Court justice raises serious concerns related to federal tax and ethics laws,” Wyden, who heads the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a six-page letter to Crow.
Wyden’s letter was sent as Thomas and the Supreme Court itself face criticism following an April 6 report by ProPublica that the chairman of Crow Holdings for more than two decades has treated the conservative justice to luxurious trips worth at least hundreds of thousands of dollars.
ProPublica also reported on April 13 that a Crow company in 2014 purchased three properties in Savannah, Georgia, from Thomas and his family, including a home where the justice’s mother has lived rent-free for more than a decade.
The gifted trips to Thomas and his wife, Ginni, were to places such as Indonesia, New Zealand and Greece, with travel on Crow’s private jet and 162-foot superyacht Michaela Rose.
Thomas had not disclosed any of the gifts from Crow, or the property purchases by him, until they were revealed by ProPublica.
“The secrecy surrounding your dealings with Justice Thomas is simply unacceptable,” Wyden wrote in his letter to Crow.
“The American public deserves a full accounting of the full extent of your largesse towards Justice Thomas, including whether these gifts complied with all relevant federal tax and ethics laws,” he wrote.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., speaks during a Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing on Feb. 23, 2021.
Greg Nash | Pool | Reuters
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