Republican megadonor Harlan Crow footed the bill for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ grandnephew’s private school tuition, according to ProPublica. “Harlan picked up the tab,” a former administrator at the Hidden Lake Academy was quoted as saying in a new report. Thomas had legal custody of his grandnephew Mark Martin since the boy was 6 and decided to send him to the private boarding school in 2008. Citing a bank statement from the school for July 2009, ProPublica reports that it was Crow who was listed as the source of the payment for tuition, which cost over $6,000 a month at the time. Christopher Grimwood, the former administrator, said Crow covered Martin’s tuition the whole time he was there, or for about a year. Martin, in his 30s now, said he had no idea Crow had paid the bill but said there was nothing nefarious about it and Crow had done it as “a friend.” Both Crow and Thomas have denied that the billionaire real estate magnate’s “hospitality” toward Thomas—in the form of lavish gifts over many years—involved any lobbying or attempts to sway the Supreme Court justice. But ProPublica notes that Thomas did not disclose Crow’s tuition “gift,” even though he had disclosed another education payment made by a different friend.
