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GOP Hypocrisy

The Clarence Thomas Scandal Just Got So Much Worse, With Calls for His Resignation Increasing Exponentially

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As we continue to find out more about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas being treated to luxurious vacations by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow, it has now been revealed Thomas’s mother has been living in a house owned by Crow, virtually rent-free since 2014, Insider reports.

And according to Zillow, this deal may have saved dear old Mom $150,000 in rent for the property.

In a report last week, ProPublica revealed Crow’s undisclosed 2014 purchase of Thomas’s childhood home in Savannah, Georgia. All of this is part of a growing scandal involving Thomas and Crow’s close relationship.

This has led some prominent Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to call for Thomas to be impeached.

“It is the House’s responsibility to pursue that investigation in hte form of impeachment,” she said in an interview with CNN.

But she already knows this is a longshot because the House of Representatives has a Republican majority that won’t likely want to take action against a conservative justice, Reuters reports.

The occupancy agreement allows Leola Williams, Thomas’s 94-year-old mom to stay in the home without paying rent for the rest of her life. She is responsible for other expenses including property taxes and insurance, per CNN.

The estimates compiled by Zillow for what the property would cost to rent show that Williams may have saved as much as $154,900 over the years. The estimates also show that the property’s rent has fluctuated between $1,100 and $2,400 since its sale on October 15, 2014.

This isn’t even the half of it, however. ProPublica also reports after the home was sold, there have been renovations worth thousands of dollars, including repaired roof and a new carport. Slate has confirmed that Williams still lives at the home.

Of course, the news of this comes days after another ProPublica report on Thomas’s relationship with Crow, with the Justice being treated to more than 20 years of luxury vacations and gifts Thomas accepted but never disclosed.

As you might expect, Thomas is countering all of this, saying the trips are part of a “personal hospitality” exemption in disclosure requirements.

I’m sure.

And as weeks go by, calls for his resignation or impeachment keep growing, but legal experts have told Insider there’s little chance that he’ll be removed due to a lack of regulatory and disciplinary options for dealing with corruption in the Supreme Court.

Crow attacked ProPublica amid the context of his relationship with Thomas in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. He went on to say it was “insane to suggest that he would ever try to influence Thomas, who’s currently the longest-serving justice.

When it comes to the properties he’s purchased, Crow said it “kind of drives me crazy” that anyone would find something unethical about the transactions. The Dallas billionaire said he hopes to build a museum centered on Thomas’s boyhood home on the site.

“His life story is an amazing American life story: born into deep poverty. Father gone. Mother — the lady whom we’re talking about — really not able to do a lot to help raise her two sons,” Crow said. “Ultimately raised by his grandparents, who were illiterate. Growing up in Jim Crow Georgia.”

While it’s admirable that Thomas arose from such painful circumstances, what he’s done in the meantime, along with his wife Ginni Thomas, who allegedly played a role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, is not admirable. Frankly, we should have seen the writing on the wall when Anita Hill came forward to allege Thomas had sexually abused her. But the all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by then-Senator Joe Biden, confirmed Thomas anyway.

And now, we have a billionaire trying to frame the current situation as merely making modest upgrades for an elderly woman.

“When we made this purchase, she was just an 84-year-old lady, or something like that. I built a carport, so that she can park her car,” Crow said. “It’s not an enclosed garage. That’s what I did. Now, you said improvements to the house. I don’t remember any other rooms. However, if there was a commode that was terrible. I might have fixed that. I don’t know.”

I’m not against the idea of an elderly woman living in what was once her own home, to begin with. I hope Williams is comfortable there. What I am against is all the lies and chicanery that are obviously going on here. All those fancy vacations present a clear conflict of interest here since this may have influenced Thomas to do Crow’s bidding.

That’s what I’m against.

People on Twitter aren’t playing around and are calling for Thomas to resign NOW:

Megan Hamilton
meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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