Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly hid free yacht trip to Putin's hometown
A few years after former President George W. Bush claimed he looked into Putin's eyes "and saw his soul," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas enjoyed a yacht trip to Saint Petersburg, where Vladimir Putin was born.
The Daily Beast found buried on page 14 of a senate letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland that Thomas neglected to mention yet another free trip on a yacht.
Raw Story reported that Democratic senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) submitted a letter alleging several “likely undisclosed gifts and income."
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“The Senate is not a prosecutorial body, and the Supreme Court has no fact-finding function of its own, making the executive role all the more important if there is ever to be any complete determination of the facts,” the letter says asking for the appointment of a special prosecutor.
The Beast dug into the report to compare the list of improprieties with previous reports published by ProPublica over the past year.
There's a full list of secret gifts to Thomas, including a loan for more than $267,000 from Anthony Welters. It also included the secret 2003 yacht trip to Russia from the Baltics and a helicopter ride to the Yusupov Palace.
The Senate list includes "likely undisclosed gifts and income from Harlan Crow," the big GOP donor previously named for large contributions and luxury vacations. It also lists "likely undisclosed gifts and income from other donors."
One of those individuals is Wayne Huizenga, who died in 2018 but paid for a private plane trip from South Florida to Tampa in 2003. In 2004 he used Miami Dolphins cash to fly Thomas around on a private plane, according to the reports.
Another big donor was the former NatsJets CEO David Sokol, who footed the bill for the Jackson Hole, WY trip, flights to several states and Washington, D.C., and tickets to a Nebraska football and volleyball game.
Paul Anthony Novelly, of Apex Oil, only provided a few private plane trips for Thomas.
Read the remainder of the details here.
See the screen captures below or at the link here.
Screen captures of the Senate letter to Garland
Screen captures of the Senate letter to Garland