Quote:Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has taken dozens of trips paid for by at least four billionaire friends during his time on the bench, a new report from ProPublica found.
The report expands upon ProPublica’s previous investigation into Thomas’s relationship with Harlan Crow, a GOP megadonor who gifted the justice with vacations, flights and even paid for his mother’s house in Georgia.
ProPublica’s newest story sheds additional light on the two men’s friendship and details trips Thomas purportedly accepted from three other billionaires: former Berkshire Hathaway executive David Sokol, oil businessman Paul “Tony” Novelly and H. Wayne Huizenga, who helped expand Blockbuster.
The report detailed how Thomas’s friends footed the bills for at least 38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights and eight helicopter flights. Besides travel costs, billionaires paid for 12 VIP passes to sporting events, two resort stays in Florida and Jamaica and one “standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club” on the Atlantic coast, according to the report. Some of the trips were previously known.
Sokol and Novelly’s companies did not immediately return requests for comment. Huizenga is deceased.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-bat...e-friends/
