Clarence Thomas’s Friends in High Places

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4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

A ProPublica investigation revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas has been gifted luxury vacations by Republican donor and billionaire Harlan Crow. For over two decades, Justice Thomas has taken private jets, gone on yachts and stayed at private resorts alongside powerful Republican donors, all funded by Crow. For the most part, Justice Thomas did not disclose these vacations. The investigation raises questions on the legality of these types of gifts, as well as the lack of oversight and ethics standards for the Supreme Court. Did these vacations break the law? To what extent could Justice Thomas’s court rulings have been influenced by Crow and other people on these trips? And even if some of these gifts may not have been illegal, why doesn’t the Supreme Court have more oversight and ethical guidelines to prevent potential conflicts of interest? Guest: Justin Elliot, reporter at ProPublica. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Amicus—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Are you tired of range anxiety when driving your electric vehicle?
0:03.2	Choosing the Michelin Pilot Sport EV or E-Primacy tyre for your electric car can extend range by up to 10%.
0:09.6	Would you prefer your journeys to sound like this?
0:11.8	Or like this?
0:13.4	Design specifically for electric cars, Michel and EV tyres can take you further,
0:17.5	provide a more peaceful journey and improve your driving experience.
0:20.9	Let's face it,
0:21.8	Game Changing Cars does have Game Changing Tires.
0:24.4	Find the right tyres for your electric vehicle at QuickFit.com
0:27.7	And drive away happy every time.
0:36.4	Last Thursday, we learned from pro-publica reporter Justin Elliott and his co-authors
0:41.8	that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has expensive taste.
0:46.9	For example, in 2019, just after Thomas finished his responsibilities with the court in Washington,
0:54.0	he hopped on board a very special private jet.
0:57.6	It's a Bombardier Global 5000.
1:00.9	And if you were to go on the open market to charter one of these for a trip,
1:05.3	we were told that you'd be paying easily 10 to $15,000 per flight hour.
1:11.3	The destination? Indonesia.
1:19.5	That's a flight that takes 25, 30 hours at least.
1:22.4	So if you start just doing the arithmetic on the flight alone,
1:25.2	it's an extraordinary amount of money.
1:28.3	But the decadence was only beginning.
	...

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