Crow Bought Property From Thomas But Justice Didn't Disclose It

In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia.

Photo Insert: A federal disclosure law passed after Watergate requires justices and other officials to disclose the details of real estate sales over $1,000 but Thomas never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties to GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.

What made it noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives, Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski reported for ProPublica.

The transaction marks the first known instance of money flowing from the Republican megadonor to the Supreme Court justice.

The Crow company bought the properties for $133,363 from three co-owners — Thomas, his mother and the family of Thomas’ late brother, according to a state tax document and a deed dated Oct. 15, 2014, filed at the Chatham County courthouse.

The purchase put Crow in an unusual position: He now owned the house where the justice’s elderly mother was living. Soon after the sale was completed, contractors began work on the property.

A federal disclosure law passed after Watergate requires justices and other officials to disclose the details of real estate sales over $1,000. Thomas never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties. That appears to be a violation of the law, four ethics law experts told ProPublica.

“He needed to report his interest in the sale,” said Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer now at the watchdog group CREW.

The justice’s failure to report the transaction suggests “Thomas was hiding a financial relationship with Crow,” said Kathleen Clark, a legal ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis who reviewed years of Thomas’ disclosure filings.

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