July 10, 2024
Two Democratic senators have accused Justice Clarence Thomas of accepting a free trip to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hometown.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon filed a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland on July 3, asking to open an investigation into the Supreme Court judge.
The letter said there was a “serious possibility of tax fraud” and accused Thomas of having “secretly accepted gifts and income potentially worth millions of dollars.”
The letter’s appendix, which lists 35 undisclosed gifts, shows a “yacht trip to Russia and the Baltics” and a “helicopter ride to Yusupov Palace, St. Petersburg,” both listed under the year 2003.
St. Petersburg, Russia, is Putin’s birthplace and where he grew up. The president now resides in Moscow.
The appendix list is titled “Likely Undisclosed Gifts and Income from Harlan Crow and Affiliated Companies.” Harlan Crow is a real-estate developer and the former chairman and CEO of the Trammell Crow Company.
The senators cited a ProPublica report from May last year detailing Thomas’ hushed-up financial ties to Crow.
The report said that apart from the Russia trip, Crow also funded Thomas’ grandnephew Mark Martin‘s boarding-school fees, which cost “more than $6,000 a month.”
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Bugs Marlowe