This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/opinion/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate.html

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 4 Version 5
Clarence Thomas Can Do No Wrong Clarence Thomas Can Do No Wrong
(about 20 hours later)
The law is a little different for those at the top.The law is a little different for those at the top.
As the world now knows, Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose a real estate deal he and his family made in 2014 with Harlan Crow, a billionaire Republican donor. Thomas and several other relatives sold his mother’s home in Savannah, Ga., along with two vacant lots, for $133,363 to a company owned by Crow.As the world now knows, Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose a real estate deal he and his family made in 2014 with Harlan Crow, a billionaire Republican donor. Thomas and several other relatives sold his mother’s home in Savannah, Ga., along with two vacant lots, for $133,363 to a company owned by Crow.
“Soon after the sale was completed,” according to ProPublica, “contractors began work on tens of thousands of dollars of improvements.”“Soon after the sale was completed,” according to ProPublica, “contractors began work on tens of thousands of dollars of improvements.”
Thomas’s mother, Leola Williams, 94, still lives in the house. Neither she nor the justice appears to pay rent.Thomas’s mother, Leola Williams, 94, still lives in the house. Neither she nor the justice appears to pay rent.
There is some dispute over whether Thomas actually violated federal disclosure laws by accepting gifts from Crow — as ProPublica also revealed — without reporting them to the government. Thomas’s legal obligations on this real estate transaction are a little more straightforward. Under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, passed in the wake of Watergate, federal officials, including members of the federal judiciary, are required to disclose most real estate transactions totaling more than $1,000.There is some dispute over whether Thomas actually violated federal disclosure laws by accepting gifts from Crow — as ProPublica also revealed — without reporting them to the government. Thomas’s legal obligations on this real estate transaction are a little more straightforward. Under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, passed in the wake of Watergate, federal officials, including members of the federal judiciary, are required to disclose most real estate transactions totaling more than $1,000.
Clarence Thomas, in other words, may have broken the law.
If so, then penalties for either falsifying or “knowingly or willfully” failing to file or report required information include fines of as much as $71,316 per omission and, potentially, a criminal referral. In 2015, for example, as CNN reported, “a financial administrator for the Federal Bureau of Prisons was given three years probation and paid a $5,000 fine for failing to disclose a business relationship he had with a federal contractor that was competing to provide inmate health care services.”
The idea that Thomas will face any penalty, much less an official investigation by the Supreme Court, is obviously wish-casting. The politics of the court, the lack of any internal check on the court’s members and the general unwillingness of Congress to challenge the court’s power — or even scrutinize its affairs — mean Thomas can act with relative impunity.