The conservative justice Clarence Thomas has attended at least two donor events organized by the Koch network, the ultra-right political organization founded by the libertarian billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which has brought multiple cases before the supreme court, according to the latest revelations by ProPublica on the judge, his friends and financial disclosures.
Thomas was brought in to speak at the fundraising events in the hope that access to one of the most senior and right-leaning judges on the US supreme court would encourage the network’s wealthy donors to keep giving, three former Koch network employees and one major donor told the non-profit investigative news outlet.
In one case, the 75-year-old justice traveled to a weekend event in Palm Springs, California, in January 2018 on a private jet, which he never reported on his annual financial disclosure form, in an apparent violation of federal law requiring justices to report most gifts, according to ProPublica.
“I can’t imagine – it takes my breath away, frankly – that he would go to a Koch network event for donors,” John E Jones III, a retired federal judge appointed by President George W Bush, told ProPublica. “What you’re seeing is a slow creep toward unethical behavior. Do it if you can get away with it.”
A spokesperson for the Koch network told ProPublica that: “Thomas wasn’t present for fundraising conversations” but did not respond to detailed questions about his role at the Palm Springs events. It is unclear who paid for the jet, as the spokesperson denied it was the network. Neither Thomas nor Charles Koch responded to ProPublica about the donor events. David Koch died in 2019.
Thomas’s involvement as a potential fundraising draw is part of a decades-long personal relationship with the influential Koch brothers that has remained almost entirely out of public view. The relationship was apparently nurtured during regular trips to the Bohemian Grove, a secretive all-men’s retreat in northern California, where Thomas stayed with the real estate magnate Harlan Crow and the Koch siblings, according to records and people who have spent time with him there, reported ProPublica.
Friday’s report is the latest in a string of exposés into the personal and financial ties between Thomas and rich benefactors, many of whom are donors to rightwing causes.
ProPublica has previously revealed undeclared links to Crow including luxury holidays and travel; a real estate sale which benefited Thomas’s mother; and school fees paid for his great-nephew. In a statement earlier this year, confirmed that Crow is a close friend with whom he has taken “family trips” and has argued that he was not required to disclose the free vacations.
Thomas’s links with the Koch network are arguably more ethically dicey, given that the federal judiciary’s code of conduct specifically prohibits both political activity and participation in fundraising. Judges are advised not to “associate themselves” with any group “publicly identified with controversial legal, social or political positions”.
But the code of conduct does not apply to the supreme court, where justices are left to decide what is ethical and what is not.
As it stands, Thomas will be on the bench when the conservative super-majority supreme court hears a Koch-backed case that seeks to strip federal agencies of their power to make rules on the environment, labor rights and consumer protection among other issues. If the Koch network’s attorneys win the case, it would undo decades of legal precedent and have a profound impact on the health and safety of Americans’ lives – and the ability of the government to tackle the climate emergency.
